STRIKER DILEMMA IS AN EXCITING PROSPECT

Dembele being paired with Edouard in attack is an exciting prospect for the fans – but perhaps not for Griffiths

I WAS part of one or two decent strike partnerships in my time at Celtic and so naturally I’m excited by the prospect of Odsonne Edouard and Moussa Dembele leading the attack for Celtic this season.

We all know that Brendan Rodgers likes to play with one up front, and it is a formula that has served him well. It delivered a double Treble, after all.

But the situation right now with the way that his pack is stacked means that he has got three very, very good strikers. For me, you have to get as many of them in the team as you can.

I’d be amazed if he doesn’t start with both Dembele and Edouard over in Armenia against Alashkert having started the last two friendlies with the two young Frenchmen working in tandem in attack. There appeared to be real promise in the partnership.

Last season, Edouard was pretty much untested, and he didn’t really come into the fray until that goal against Rangers at Ibrox. He then went on to finish the season really strongly, and that moved Brendan to go and break the transfer record for him, so he obviously rates him very highly. I can’t see him spending £9 million on a player and then having him on the bench.

As for Dembele, he is just tremendous. He’s a great player. He’s strong, powerful and quick, and looks to have come back this summer in fabulous physical condition. He is a threat in behind too.

He reminds me of a young Didier Drogba. He bullies centre-halfs, and he’s certainly quicker than I ever was. I was quite quick getting across a defender in the box and timed my runs

well, but in terms of going over the top and being that constant threat in behind, I was never a threat in the same way that Dembele is.

He’s a tremendous asset for Celtic. When he is up for it, he is unplayable, and he certainly appears to be in a great frame of mind at the moment as well as being in great physical condition.

It will be interesting to see how long Celtic can keep him before a club comes in and blows them out of the water with a massive bid, because everybody is aware that one day he will leave the football club.

I’m delighted to see Brendan playing this way

It’s just great to enjoy him at the moment and hopefully he can stay for a bit longer and keep putting in these great performances, and certainly deliver Celtic to the Champions League.

I have to mention Leigh Griffiths as well, who is unfortunate in that he is now competing with a £9m signing and a player the club rates at £25-£30m for a starting slot. You can’t pay a fee like that, or rate a player in such a bracket, and then not play them.

All of the strikers will understand that they cannot play every game though, and Leigh will still play a massive part this season. He has a new contract on the way, and he can still be a vitally important player for Celtic.

For a lot of the time last season, Brendan obviously didn’t feel that a front two was his best formation, because he had Callum McGregor in behind the front, Scott Sinclair playing out wide on the left, James Forrest on the right and Olivier Ntcham and Scott Brown as cover in defensive midfield. The system worked, but he is now in a situation where he has three very good and established strikers, and they will all now want to play.

He can’t shoehorn all three in, but he will certainly try to get two in, and I think it is the best way for Celtic to now play given the personnel that they have.

They no longer have Stuart Armstrong, an attacking midfielder who will support the attack, Patrick Roberts has also gone, so for me you have to try to get those two strikers on the field. By playing three at the back, it allows the wing-backs to get up the pitch and provide the width in a similar style to Martin O’Neill’s Celtic side. I loved that system.

We had three at the back, two wing-backs, three midfielders with one sitting, a Stilyan Petrov or a Paul Lambert joining in up top and then that allowed Martin to play with two strikers. It’s almost like a 3-4-3, with the wing-backs playing like wingers.

I’m delighted to see Brendan playing this way. He has already said that he wants to get back to scoring more goals this season, and this is a really attackminded way to play the game. His hand has been forced a little because of his personnel, but it should make for a really exciting season for the Celtic supporters.