Bonner tips Dembele to up his game in cup derby
PAT BONNER has backed Moussa Dembele to rediscover his finest form amid a frustrating season and knock Rangers out of the Scottish Cup on Sunday.
After scoring 17 league goals last term, the French striker has managed only eight in the Premiership this campaign.
Fellow striker Leigh Griffiths has scored only nine league goals during an injury-hit campaign but is just two short of reaching the 100 mark for Celtic across only four seasons.
The paltry league totals from both players have perplexed Bonner. But although he has been particularly surprised by Dembele’s inconsistent performances, the former Celtic goalkeeper reckons the Old Firm specialist will rise to the occasion against his Ibrox rivals at Hampden this weekend.
Bonner said: ‘Moussa Dembele is a young man with brilliant attributes. For me, though, he has to do it more often.
‘I’ve no doubt he will go out on Sunday and show his quality again but I want to see him do that on a regular basis.
‘To play as a striker for Celtic, you have to be good all the time and that’s what Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths should both be thinking about. They should be thinking about how they are going to be remembered.
‘The goalkeepers and defenders at Celtic are never the ones the fans will talk about in the future.
‘It’s the creative players who get the plaudits but you need to perform week-in and week-out to be elevated to that status.
‘You need to score against the wee teams and the medium teams as well as in the big games.
‘Do that for three or four years and then you’ll be recognised as a brilliant striker and that’s what some of the current players have got to think about.
‘I’m not criticising them. What I’m saying is that they need to be consistently effective.
‘I find it hard to believe that Celtic’s top scorer in the league this season has nine goals — especially since they’ll win the title by a handsome margin. I don’t think that’s ever happened before in a championship-winning Celtic team. Injury has affected that, with Griffiths and Dembele having had spells out. But, even at that, it still shouldn’t be happening.
‘When I played in the early 1980s, Charlie Nicholas and Frank McGarvey used to have a competition to see which of them would be the first to hit 30 goals for the season.’
If there is a debate over who should start up front for Celtic on Sunday, Bonner insists there is no question about who plays in goal this weekend.
Scott Bain enjoyed an excellent Celtic debut deputising for the injured Craig Gordon in the 3-2 win against Rangers at Ibrox last month. He was also preferred to Gordon on the plastic pitch at Hamilton last Sunday.
But Bonner says fit-again Scotland international Gordon must get the nod for Hampden over back-ups Bain and Dorus de Vries.
‘Craig should play, no question,’ he said. ‘He’s fit, he’s raring to go, and he produced some excellent saves when he returned to the team against Dundee recently.
‘I also watched him in the warm down after the previous game against Ross County and the routine
that I saw Craig go through told me he is ready. Craig has earned it. He’s the best goalkeeper of the three, I’ve no doubt. Plus, he has a lot of experience so, for me, he goes straight into the team.
‘Scott Bain has been nice and calm, he moves well, and he is good enough with the ball at his feet. He makes saves, too, but I don’t think he’s been overly tested. He’s done okay.
‘But if they are going to sign him permanently at the end of the season, he would be a good signing.
‘At 26, he’s the perfect age. Listen, Craig Gordon is 35 with dodgy knees so they need to be looking at who is going to be No 1 in the future.
‘Scott Bain, at the moment, fits that profile. I’m not so sure about Dorus de Vries, to be honest.’
Rangers have not won in the last nine Old Firm clashes and Bonner believes the longer that run goes on, the more pressure is heaped on the Ibrox side.
‘It definitely gets harder for them with each passing game,’ he said. ‘Before the last game at Ibrox, they had expectations — they were at home and they’d been playing well and they thought that would be the one to end this run. But they lost 3-2 (to ten-man Celtic). ‘I just feel if Celtic play well on Sunday, then they are the better team and they have a better squad and they will win the game.’