Tomorrow Gordon Strachan will name his latest Scotland squad that will face a tough Euro 2016 qualifying double header against Germany and Georgia.

Celtic hitman Leigh Griffiths will be a cert to be named in that pool.

But for me Strachan has to drop current favoured frontman Steven Fletcher and give in-form Griffiths the strikers starting berth.

Leigh started 2015 with a bang and managed to dislodge loanee signing John Guidetti from the Celtic starting eleven. The forward was also hitting the net for fun in preseason this summer.

His scoring form has continued into this term and already has seven goals to his name in ten competitive appearances. Three of which have been in the ‘Hoops’ Champions League qualifying campaign.

Against Malmo FF in midweek, the speedy forward lead the line well and took his two goals with aplomb. The first was a smart finish from inside the Swedish box and the second was all about hunger to beat the defender to the high ball.

At Sunderland, Fletcher still doesn’t look match sharp and his confidence seems to be shot. He was dropped again for yesterday’s game against Swansea City. Yes he has scored three times for Scotland this year but all three were against Gibraltar and even then he still managed to look unconvincing.

Strachan has done a great job with the Tartan Army squad and we actually have a chance of qualifying for France next June. But the forward spot has always been one of our weaker areas as we lack a consistent scorer.

Now I am not saying that Griffiths will come in and solve all our problems but he is on form and has matured as a player since Ronny Deila took over at Celtic Park in 2014.

He seems to be more prolific and professional, since he started working with the Norwegian coach and a lot of that will be down to the fact that he’s also a fitter player.

Yesterday Deila told the world all you need to know about his strikers desire to keep on improving:

“He could have rested if he wanted – we gave him the option – but he really wanted to play.”

Griffiths decision to play was the right one, as he added another goal to his tally in Celtic’s 3-1 away win over Jackie McNamara’s Dundee United.

The strikers determination to play was also rewarded by the fact that Scots boss Strachan was watching on as a tv pundit.

Gordon was clearly impressed with what he saw. He told BT Sport:

“He has dragged himself back in to being Celtic No.1 and he has dragged himself back into the Scotland reckoning.”

Leigh Griffiths has started this season on a mission, and his impressive displays should see him become Scotland’d new number nine.

He has pace and that ability to pester and annoy opposing defenders. With a strong forward line behind him, he should get chances and then its all about taking those chances.

Let’s hope he can keep up this current scoring form, hit the goal trail with the national team and help fire us to our first major international tournament since 1998!

Posted on August 23rd, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article