What makes Odsonne Edouard such a good Celtic striker?
Stefan Bienkowski
Odsonne Edouard is unquestionably one of the most gifted players in Scottish football at the moment and following in the footsteps of other exciting, young players to ply their trade in the Scottish Premiership a number of European clubs are beginning to take notice of what he's doing at Celtic.
Edouard arrived on loan from PSG in August 2017 as a back-up striker to Moussa Dembele, yet the young Frenchman made an instant impact with 11 goals and three assists in just 22 games and was quickly signed on a permanent basis by the Scottish club.
Edouard's permanent move to Glasgow coincided with Dembele departure for Lyon and since then the young striker has been Celtic's main source of goals and points in domestic and European competitions ever since.
xG per 90 Goals per 90 Assists per 90
2020/21 0.73 0.67 0
2019/20 0.69 0.71 0.33
2018/19 0.5 0.5 0.18
Edouard's talents lie in his ability to score goals like a poacher but drift wide and dribble in tight spaces like a winger or No.10. The striker's xG P90 has steadily improved each season from 0.5 to 0.73 for Neil Lennon's side in this current campaign.
Naturally, like all good strikers, Edouard's actual goals P90 follows an almost identical trend, rising steadily from 0.58 goals P90 in 2018/19 to 0.67 goals P90 this season. In that time, the Frenchman has also provided 19 assists on top of his goalscoring, which clearly indicates how creative he can be in or around the box when the ball is at his feet.
Further proof of Edouard's talent on the ball is evident in him leading the Scottish Premiership in dribbles into the box per game last season and how often a forward player tended to cut inside and either shoot or pass the ball.
The young forward is just as comfortable taking on an opposing defender as he is tapping a ball into an empty net at the back post and that's what makes him so pivotal to Celtic and such an exciting, young prospect.