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Celtic manager Neil Lennon believes Odsonne Edouard is becoming increasingly reliable after the in-form Frenchman scored his 10th goal of the season at the weekend.
It took the 21-year-old forward less than a minute of the second half to add his name to the scoresheet as Celtic hammered Ross County 6-0 to return to the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table on Saturday.
And his performance earned him plaudits from boss Lennon, who also lauded two-goal Mohamed Elyounoussi, Jeremie Frimpong, Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and James Forrest.
He told Celtic’s official website: “I don’t want to wax lyrical about him (Edouard) every week, although he’s not that type of kid to get carried away, but you can see he’s in a good place.
“He’s a beautiful mover of the ball and his link-up play is getting better. I’m so happy he got the goal just after half-time because he deserved it, because he had a couple of good opportunities in the first half.
“He’s always a threat. He complements the players that are around him, he’s become more and more reliable and the volume of goals is testament to his own improvement.
“I thought Mo was fantastic from start to finish and I thought Jeremie Frimpong showed some great things in the second half.
“Scott Brown was immense, as was Callum McGregor – those two complement each other brilliantly – James Forrest had a great game. They were all bang on it and when they’re like that, they’re hard to stop.
“So it augurs well going forward.”
Next up for Celtic is a home clash with Serie A side Lazio in the Europa League on Thursday night.
The Scottish champions sit top of Group E after picking up four points in their opening two matches and Lennon wants his side to take this opportunity to enhance their reputation on the European stage.
In an interview with CelticTV, Lennon said: “Lazio are a class team – in Serie A, great pedigree.
“It’s a glamour game for us. It’s mouth-watering, not just for the players but for the supporters.
“The players have worked hard to get to a really strong position in the group and obviously I think most people would have fancied Lazio to be favourites for the group when the draw was made.
“So there are so many incentives for the players going into this game and so many incentives for the supporters.
“And yes, while we do know the league is the priority – no question about that – and that will remain the same right up until the end of May, I think it’s really important that we enhance our reputation in Europe.
“We’ve got European players, we’ve got quality players who have proven so far that they can play at that level and it’s a big game under the lights.
“It’s really important to me personally, not only as a player but obviously more importantly now as a manager, that we have these nights.
“And I would love us to progress through the group and have European football after Christmas but we know we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
