Andy Halliday has recently made a claim about Neil Lennon’s decision to drop Odsonne Edouard.
Halliday was a guest on the latest episode of the Open Goal podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving Scottish football. One topic of discussion was Celtic’s recent form and Halliday was talking about the fact that Lennon had dropped Edouard to the bench for the club’s Premiership game against Motherwell. Halliday believes that dropping the Frenchman to the bench was a ‘big statement’ from Lennon.
Albian Ajeti had started the game against Motherwell and Edouard had come on from the bench. The Frenchman did grab an assist in a 4-1 win for the Bhoys (as per WhoScored). Halliday feels that Edouard has been out of form for a while now and there had to be a change at some point.
Was Lennon right to drop Edouard?
Yes
No
He said: “That was a big statement, I thought. Definitely not expecting it. I think Edouard, he’s probably been Celtic’s key man for the last couple of years. You’re always expecting someone that’s out of form to get back to their best, but if they’re out of form for so long, there’s got to be a change at some point. You’ve got to just say, ‘listen, you can’t keep playing.'”
TIF Thoughts on Halliday’s comments regarding Edouard…
Edouard has picked up a rating of 7.29 in the Premiership this season and has directly contributed to five goals so far. In the Europa League, he’s picked up an unimpressive rating of 5.87 and he’s yet to score in the group stages of the competition.
Celtic have currently played 12 league games and at this point last season, Edouard had contributed to more Premiership goals than he has this season, so his output has dropped. Having said that, the Frenchman had tested positive for the virus during the previous international break and Lennon has previously stated that transfer speculation had affected the striker. So while he’s not had a brilliant season, his form might’ve been affected by the illness and by the transfer speculation that surrounded him.