Can Kenny play in the champions league?
Reports today that Celtic are trying for Louis Barry. Could see him coming in ahead of Idah and Kenny straight away on current form.
Starts again tonight, away to Dundee. Another underwhelming half though, with Dundee getting an equaliser shortly before halftime, so Rodgers may make changes earlier than he otherwise might
Off after an hour and yet another blank. If you were being extremely charitable you could say he assisted the second goal, but that wasn't what he was trying to do. Unsurprisingly looked utterly deflated walking off.
Judging by online comments the support base are turning on him now unfortunately. £9.5m is an awful lot of money for Celtic.
Last edited by Eirambler; 14/01/2025 at 9:36 PM.
13 touches in his hour on the pitch. Next lowest total for Celtic was 34. He really struggles to get involved far too often.
I'd say he sees his dream move going badly wrong at this stage. You feel for guys like that in fairness. But with every goalless week, he's further and further from being a legit option for us
Hard to know what to say. He got his run of games. If his confidence is an issue then he just can't be relied upon. I always felt bad for him at Norwich and blamed injuries and confidence and stuttered game time. No injuries, plenty game time and confidence stunting output. Doesn't really work.
This is the thing. If the Celtic jersey is too big for him then he can't be trusted to play international football at present. The competition for the Ireland jersey up front is far stronger than what he's competing with at Celtic. Right now he'd be behind Ferguson, Szmodics, Cannon, Parrott and Robinson at least. I'd probably play Armstrong ahead of him as well as he'd at least make a nuisance of himself even if he wasn't scoring goals (Armstrong could be a player who's more useful at international level than club level).
The only thing that might keep Idah in the next Ireland squad is injuries as we have a few forwards currently out of action.
Funny thing is, Celtic were markedly worse after he went off. Causation vs. correlation and all that....
The breakaway in the first half would have been a wonderful goal. He busted a gut to make up ground and Kyogo played a lovely ball in. The keeper did really well and left Idah with (I think) little option but to try to get a delicate touch to lift it over him. I think a firm touch - the easy option - would have been smothered by the keeper. It's not easy to sprint and then get a soft touch but it's definitely a big chance missed - and would have won the game I'd say. Bernardo's miss was poor too.
I don't disagree with these points regarding his all around game. He definitely offers something - I thought he had a very good first half Saturday v Ross County. But that good first half was impacted by a failure to hit the target and missing a fairly straight forward chance when put through.
He is a very good focal point. His touch and his link up is good and it is improving - albeit, he has shown flashes in games for Ireland.
Big feature on the BBC site today on how he's not really performing. Fairly unusual sort of article I think.
Would say that's fairly standard fare for Scottish football coverage to be honest. Idah's fee is huge by Scottish standards, so there will inevitably be scrutiny when he goes almost two months without scoring a goal. Given the advantages Celtic strikers have over strikers at almost any other club in Britain (better players in a better team getting more chances against particularly weak opposition by comparison) he should be banging them in.
Finally got a bit of luck !
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
There's no way he's claiming that!
Incredibly lucky it goes in but the run was good and strong and he let the ball run across his body. Only way to finish first time was the way he did and hope the keeper doesn't put his leg out - but he did. Otherwise a touch to go around the keeper but might have ended badly.
Either way, he gets an assist for the goal. And I don't think he even saw how it went in but got the release and relief when he went to celebrate with the fans and teammates.
I'm about to say "well that is the confidence mended" but he really needs to find a way around those goalless streaks. It has happened too much.
Ah here... he's claiming it and I get why given his lack of form, confidence and standing with the support - but after a good initial run he fluffed the one on one and got lucky with the defender knocking it in for him.
On the BBC highlights programme they're literally laughing at him trying to claim the goal in his interview afterwards and I can understand why. The stats will show he's goalless in 14 games now, so hopefully he can at least convince himself that his "goal" is the turning point for him. But he still needs to start actually scoring goals himself from those kind of chances.
I think you are doing him a bit of disservice - he did everything pretty much right with the exception of actually putting the ball in the net and in situations like that you need the bit of luck with the bounce of the ball (which he didn't get with the shot but did with the rebound). Irrespective of whether he actually scored the goal or not - he was responsible for it - and he has now been the key figure in scoring two crucial goals for Celtic in the past few months. Last night's goal guarantees Celtic a minimum of £1m bonus as well as a further £800K for improving the league position. It is still possible for Celtic get get seeded for the knockout which would significantly improve their chances of progressing and getting to the last 16 is worth £11m. Idah repaid a nice chunk of the transfer fee last night.
Now - none of this takes away from his lack of goals - but Idah was and never will be a prolific goalscorer. His best attributes are the rest of the stuff he does, when he has the motivation he gets through a tremendous amount of donkey work - and it is consistency in that department that I think is more important than scoring a stack full of goals from his perspective.
Very unfair to say he fluffed it. He took the pass well, used his strength to get ahead of the defender and keep his balance, and got a good shot away. I've looked at replays and I think the keeper did exceptionally well, his positioning and anticipation were superb. Idah had no space to try to round him and very limited room to put the ball anywhere that wouldn't be saved. I think Idah deserves credit, and the luck he got.
Back to this old chestnut: what was the post shot XG? If it's high I'll lose all faith in that metric. Looking at the replays the keeper made himself the favourite in the situation imho.
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