2 goals for him at Villa Park!
2 goals for him at Villa Park!
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Both finishes you wouldn't associate with a striker who hadn't scored in 14.
One a very quick reaction to sort his feet out to finish a deflection. The second needed smart movement from Idah and he finished superbly under pressure from the keeper.
Back in England ! !
Both well taken goals. His hold up play and use of his body to bully defenders also notable. If he can evolve his game to play like he is today on a regular basis we have a player.
Two good finishes to be fair. Can't do anything against Ross County and St Mirren among others and then scores two away against Villa, the man remains a mystery.
Handy one for him against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich next.
Possibly part of it is that he struggles against the low block that most SPL teams play against Celtic because he can't use his pace to run away from defenders, so he actually ends up doing better against better teams where there's more space to run into. However neither of the goals last night particularly back that up and his Ireland performances to date haven't shown much sign of that either. Maybe he's just extremely inconsistent.
His time at Norwich didn't suggest deep defences were particularly the problem either.
But let's see if the goals help his confidence a bit.
Great to see. Hopefully he'll take that confidence boost into a run of goals.
You can't spell failure without FAI
That game was crying out for Maeda last night. Yang just wasn't up to it. If Maeda was playing Idah could have scored more
I commented above that Celtic manage to get into positions to drill low balls across the box a lot (Kilmarnock game?) but Idah doesn't seem to have the knack of being right place/right time. Then against Young Boys it was Kyogo that failed in the same way. And ages ago I bemoaned Idah's inability to be in the right place for the easy (looking) finish, but that in itself is a talent - one that Ferguson seems to have.
That said, I think it often depends on a bit of luck too. The McGinn deflection for example. But what an athletic finish. And the second was a perfect centre forward's goal, and I think he showed great awareness to lift it over Martinez. He has in the past shown a good ability to lose his defender and get there first (crucial late goal vs. Motherwell away, SFA Cup Final...) so if he and Kuhn / Jota / Maeda are on the same wavelength he could thrive.
Breaks his domestic duck against Motherwell this afternoon
Only 5 off the golden boot :P
Very good game in general today I think.
Yes he played well. Forced an own goal (after some very poor defending from Shane Blaney and the Motherwell back line in general), but he was a couple of inches offside in the build up. Then had a smart low shot tipped onto the post by the Motherwell keeper. Was taken off for the last 15.
Will be interesting to see if some centre forward competition for him is signed by the end of tomorrow. 10 points clear in the league and with a no hoper draw in the Champions League they may decide to hold fire until the summer.
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