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News
John Hartson doesn’t view Celtic striker Oliver Burke as a striker after Valencia loss
John Hartson has shared his belief that Celtic’s Oliver Burke is not a natural centre-forward after his display in the defeat to Valencia.
The Bhoys exited the Europa League in the knockout rounds after losing away to Valencia, which meant they were on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline on aggregate.
Brendan Rodgers’ team battled excellently out in Spain, but Jeremy Toljan’s red card in the first-half meant they were up against it and the hosts eventually scored through Kevin Gameiro.
Ex-Celtic ace and current BT pundit Hartson assed the performance of Burke, as he spearheaded the attack for the Scottish champions.
The 21-year-old ran himself into the ground with an excellent work-rate and showed great speed, but just lacked ideas in the final third.
“He just ran out of ideas at times, he was positive in terms of his running but when he got in behind he almost did the hard thing and ran out of ideas,”
“I just felt he did some good things and he showed me tonight that I don’t think he’s a focal point out-and-out number nine.”
TBR’s View:
Burke has done well since his arrival at Parkhead on loan from West Brom and has quickly won over his manager Rodgers.
He just came up short against an experienced Valencia outfit and didn’t look like scoring, despite causing some issues with his speed and movement down the channels.
The Scotsman can surely play an important role in the club’s domestic treble pursuit, but bringing in Odsonne Edouard to the central striker role seems the most sensible move going forward.
Burke could still be effective on the wing and it’s been his best position during his career.