DIEGO LAXALT might not speak much English yet, but if one of Neil Lennon’s instructions to his left-back on Thursday night against Lille was to ‘get stuck in’, then the message certainly wasn’t lost in translation.
The Uruguayan was an outstanding mixture of aggressive defending, impressive athleticism and no little skill as he showed against Lille just why Celtic and Lennon were so keen to bring him to the club on loan from Milan. His 13 successful tackles on the night was the most any player has registered in a single Europa League match for over five years.
In fact, such has been the impact of the 27-year-old that there is little doubt the Celtic manager would love to keep him at the club on a permanent basis. Whether that will be a possibility remains to be seen, but his ability has surpassed even Lennon’s high expectations.
“It’s early days,” said Lennon. “Listen, when you’ve got a player like that [you want to keep him]. It will probably come down to having discussions with him.
“He’s a player I’ve admired for a long time, and he’s proven everything that I thought about him to be true. He’s a great defender. I’ve seen him a lot of times and I’ve always liked his style.
“Going forward he gives us good pace and thrust on the left-hand side, but he likes to defend.
“I think his positioning, his reading of the game and his football intelligence is very high.
“I think we’ll see more and more of him as he gets accustomed to the culture and the language, but I think he’s adapted brilliantly so far through all the games. He’s been outstanding from the moment he came in the door.
“He doesn’t speak much English, but you don’t have to tell him too much or give him too many instructions.
“He knows the game, he understands his position, and I felt that when I watched him over the piece he would add a lot of quality to our play. I think he’s been an excellent addition, a superb asset to the squad.
“He’s very fit, he looks after himself well. He’s a great defender and he gives us good balance on that left-hand side.
“He’s aggressive in his play and he’s aggressive in his passing. I’ve been absolutely delighted [with him].”
The only disappointment from Laxalt’s first four games for Celtic is the rather striking anomaly that they haven’t won any of them, with two defeats and two draws from matches against Rangers, AC Milan, Aberdeen and Lille.
“He hasn’t been on a winning team yet, so he’s getting a bit of stick about that from the boys, but his performances...” said Lennon.
“I think he’ll get better and better, I think he’s really enjoying it, and we’re enjoying having him.
“He was absolutely superb on Thursday night up against quality opposition.”
While the inclusion of Laxalt has been one of the positives of this recent run of games from a Celtic perspective, the absence of other players has undoubtedly contributed to their winless streak.
And just as Lennon welcomes back those affected by Covid-19 such as Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie, Hatem Elhamed and Nir Bitton, he has to contend with yet another centre-half pulling up injured in the shape of Kristoffer Ajer, who injured his groin against Lille.
"We haven't got clarity on the extent of the injury,” Lennon said. “He's to go for a scan [on Friday] so we'll know more when we get the results back but I think it's safe to say he won't play on Sunday.
"He just felt something go in his groin and he couldn't continue. He was very stiff on the plane on the way back. We won't be able to determine how long he's out for until we get the scan results.
“He's been playing really well. I just think it's a culmination of a lot of games, a bit of muscle fatigue in there. Elhamed will train [on Saturday], Bitton got half-an-hour last night, we've got (Shane) Duffy, so Elhamed will probably come back into the squad now.”
Today’s game may also come a little soon for Odsonne Edouard to start, with the Frenchman getting half an hour in his homeland during the week after recovering from Coronavirus.
“We’ll have to assess it [on Saturday],”Lennon said.
“You don’t want to damage him. It’s good he got half an hour and I think he felt ok. Bitton felt good too, so those are real positives.
“Ryan got another 70 minutes or so into his legs, so hopefully they’ll get stronger.
“There’s always that adrenaline rush when you come back into the team, and then there’s a sort of down period for a game, then they pick up their strength and match fitness as they go along.
“I think that’s what a few of them are going through at the minute.”
Lennon says that it isn't just familiarity that is breeding a little contempt between his players and their opponents today, but a feeling on the Celtic side that they rather threw away two points to Aberdeen last week.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’m probably a bit annoyed that we didn’t win the game last week, losing a last minute penalty.
“There’s a familiarity there obviously having played them so recently, and off the back of a terrific game on Thursday night, we’ll go into the game very much looking forward to it.”
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