Dembele facing anxious wait
Frenchman is ready for Ibrox but cautious over hamstring
MOUSSA DEMBELE has declared himself ready and willing to face Rangers at Ibrox next weekend but, after making a goalscoring comeback, the striker sounded a note of caution over his fitness. Paired with Leigh Griffiths in a two-man attack after two months out, the 21-year-old (left) hit his first goal since March in a 4-0 win over Ross County. The Frenchman scored 32 during his first season at Parkhead, finishing as the club’s top scorer, and believes he has returned stronger than ever.
Having missed last season’s run-in with a hamstring tear suffered in the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Rangers and then found himself back in rehab after attempting his comeback during the Champions League qualifiers against Linfield in July, he is wary of pushing his body too fast, too soon.
The scorer of five goals in last season’s Old Firm games, he hopes to be involved in next Saturday’s derby at Ibrox but will heed the advice of the club’s medics.
‘It is good to finally be back,’ he said. ‘It has been a long two months and I’m happy to be back on the pitch.
‘I do feel different. I have been away for a few weeks and I have come back stronger and fitter.
‘I want to play the game next week but I am conscious that I have to go easy. When I play, I have to give 100 per cent.
‘I will train all week and try to be ready for next week’s game. We will see what happens.
‘Last year is gone. This is a new season and, hopefully, for me it will be even better than last season.’
The return of Dembele is a significant fillip for manager Brendan Rodgers but, having allowed the Frenchman to return to his homeland for some specialist treatment at the renowned Clairefontaine football centre, he too was careful not to put too much strain on his star striker.
‘We’ll see what his reaction is,’ said the manager. ‘We don’t really need the hamstring going again, so we don’t have to force him in.
‘We have a really good squad of players, young Odsonne (Edouard), Leigh and others who can play there. That was the reason for bringing in
the third striker. Moussa and Leigh have an injury history, so we don’t really want to push it unless we have to. We’ll see what the reaction is after this.’
Dembele is not the only player being handled carefully by Rodgers. Defender Kieran Tierney was given the day off as the manager kept an eye on the 20-year-old’s forthcoming commitments for club and country.
‘Kieran was fine,’ said Rodgers. ‘He’s been running up and down the line for us and Scotland and we’ve just got to make sure he doesn’t break.
‘I trust my squad and I need to nurture young players through. The last thing I need for Kieran is sheer exhaustion as he puts so much into every game. I felt a few weeks back looking at the games that this was one where he could just get total rest.’
Physical concerns aside, Rodgers declared the performance as providing an ideal response after the 5-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night.
‘It was perfect,’ he continued. ‘The players deserve a huge amount of credit. After the energy we put into the midweek game, we knew we were going to play against a Ross County team that would make it difficult for us.
‘Thursday, Friday they were excellent in training. We tried something different today as well in terms of the shape of the team and I thought as the game went on we got better and better.
‘It’s the mark of a good side that you can respond. To score four goals and keep a clean sheet made for a really good performance.’
Rodgers has rarely utilised Dembele and Griffiths together but was pleased with this latest experiment with the combination.
‘I thought those two boys linked up very well,’ he added. ‘We played with a back three, one holding midfielder, four players in advance of that and then those two up front. We were playing against a back five with four really narrow midfielders, so that meant it was really blocked in that final third of the field.
‘For Moussa’s goal, Leigh plays it in then makes a run that takes (Andrew) Davies out the space that Moussa comes into and he bends it in for a very good finish.
‘We had a lot of really good performances, the likes of Dembele and Jonny Hayes coming in. He hasn’t featured a great deal but is always there and ready.’
County boss Jim McIntyre admitted that while his decision to pack his defence had been a partial success, his team only threatened Celtic after a change in approach.
And he heaped praise on Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon for the double save that denied the Highlanders a lifeline at 2-0.
‘We chose to go five at the back today because Celtic are very good at penetrating,’ he explained. ‘We lost a couple of goals from distance which was really frustrating and the downside of that system was we never kept the ball well enough.
‘Second half we were far better, we changed the system and got more contact on Celtic. I thought we deserved a goal, we got into some good areas and Gordon had the double save.
‘When Celtic make changes they seem quite seamless — the quality is not diluted.’