First things first; I personally wouldn’t try to squeeze both Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele into the same first XI, especially with a long season ahead.
With some fans, often obsessed with the old 4-4-2, asking for both of Celtic’s talented front men to be included from the start though, we explore how this could be achieved.
The above formation is the only way to do it, with both players adamant that they are no.9’s; proper centre-forwards. Good support would need to come from each wing but it would also mean Rodgers having to go very old school.
With two strikers taking up plenty of space in the box and each needing room to work, the modern idea of right-footed players on the left and left-footed players operating on the right would have to be scrapped too. This is because when playing that way, they have a penchant to cut inside and that is fine with only one man up front but not with two strikers staying central and demanding the ball.
Instead, it would have to be about crosses coming in and therefore wingers staying wide and on their stronger foot. To do both, the players in question would almost certainly need to be left-footed if playing out on the left and so on.
With that in mind, the only way to do it would be this:
A proper old fashioned winger who loves to take his man on and get crosses in the box. You wonder whether Brendan Rodgers did indeed have this in mind when he bought him from Aberdeen?
This system needs some solidity in the middle of the park which the captain would bring in.
Given the need for solidity, could this be a way to get Liam Henderson into the team too instead of shipping him out on loan? Possibly, yes.
Despite his talent, this would be far from ideal and shows one of the real problems with the idea. Sinclair is right-footed, likes to drift inside and would not be happy out wide on the touchline.
As long as the system doesn’t simply include throwing in booming crosses, enough chances would still come his way and he should just about be fine, maintaining his incredible goal scoring run.
Would probably just be happy to be in the team all the time. However, some of the chances falling to him would have gone to Dembele anyway and vice-versa.
The problems in trying to play both of these two are obvious and I doubt if it’s something Rodgers will do regularly. The tactic looks more like the one you try in the last 20 minutes of a game in which you are struggling to get a result.
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