Pundit Tam Cowan has recently been talking about Leigh Griffiths and whether he could have made a difference in Celtic’s 2-1 loss to Ferencvaros in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.
Cowan was a guest on the latest episode of PLZ Soccer’s The Football Show and the panel discussed many issues involving Scottish football. One thing that they focused on was the club’s loss to Ferencvaros on Wednesday.
Cowan focused on Griffiths and the fact that he was missing from the game. He talked about how the striker could have made a difference in the game.
Celtic boss Neil Lennon confirmed a week ago that Griffiths will not be leaving the club on loan and he was ‘a couple of weeks’ away from being back to full fitness.
Griffiths had returned to Celtic’s pre-season training in an overweight condition and was later ‘reminded of his responsibilities’ after pictures of him hosting a party had emerged on social media. Griffiths is currently valued at £1.8m.
Cowan believes that Griffiths not playing is a “huge loss” for the Hoops and he feels that the Scotsman could have “easily put away” three goals against Ferencvaros.
He said (12:05): “I think in some respects, the Celtic fans could just about handle Leigh Griffiths when it was during the long close-season there.
“Celtic fans were willing and able to put up with that when there were no immediate games on the horizon.”
Could Celtic have won the game if Griffiths had been fit?
Yes, we would have won
No, wouldn't have made a difference
“The bottom line was – if he had been fit [and] if he’d have been playing last night against the Hungarians in a game in which Celtic created 26 or 28 goalscoring opportunities, you would need to fancy a fit and in-form Leigh Griffiths to have easily put away three of them.
“He’s an absolutely huge loss just now and it’s coming back to haunt the club.”
TIF Thoughts…
Griffiths was in fine form for the Bhoys in the second half of the 2019/20 season. He had scored seven Premiership goals for them and had racked up three assists as well. He had also grabbed an impressive hat-trick against St. Mirren in the league (as per Transfermarkt).
This shows the impact that he can have for Celtic and is a reflection of how he can score goals when fit. Odsonne Edouard had sustained a knock on his thigh and both Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala were not match fit for the Ferencvaros tie.
So, Celtic clearly didn’t have a fully fit striker in the game and if Griffiths was fit, he might have made some sort of a difference.