Lennon's Edouard Plea That Explains Decision
Neil Lennon has revealed why the Celtic manager decided to leave Odsonne Edouard on the bench in yesterday’s 3-2 win over Livingston.
When Celtic fans first took a glimpse at yesterday’s team sheet and found that Edouard was benched, confusion and anger were the first things that came to mind. We just couldn’t understand why Lennon decided to leave our best player on the best after Edouard seemed to be fine and picking up form again.
Now the choice has been justified and Neil Lennon has been quite open on why he left the Frenchman out of the first-team squad, Edouard had gone to his manager and explained that he felt uneasy about starting the game due to a niggle in his thigh area, this lead to Lennon benching him as to not lose Odsonne for a longer period.
The decision to play Albian Ajeti had worked out as the Swiss striker bagged yet another goal for the Scottish Champions.
Lennon spoke to the media:
“He was away with France recently and played two 90 minutes with them.
“He had missed the previous three games for us before that.
“I spoke to him on Friday and he was struggling so you have to look after the player.
“Hopefully, he will be fresh for Thursday which is a very important game for us.
“He is not causing any problems behind the scenes. He was honest enough to say he was struggling, and I take his word on that.”
The Frenchman is pivotal to Celtic retaining the league title and claiming 10 in a row, Lennon was correct to take Odsonne by his word and bench the star. Hopefully the thigh problem won’t be too much of an issue for the striker as Celtic need him back to full fitness, fast.