Moritz Bauer has been quite unlucky since joining Celtic on loan.
You have to feel a bit sorry for Celtic defender Moritz Bauer.
He started his season-long loan at Parkhead firmly in the picture as one of Neil Lennon’s right-backs.
He was one of three players who joined Celtic last summer as a replacement for Mikael Lustig, but Jeremie Frimpong swiftly established himself as Lennon’s first-choice, ahead of Hatem Elhamed.
Bauer, a £5 million signing by Stoke City in 2018 [Daily Mail], has since struggled for game time under the Hoops boss, managing only 406 minutes of league action since October.
He could’ve been forgiven for believing that injuries to both Frimpong and Elhamed would lead to a resurgence, but how wrong he was.
Lennon has been playing a three-man defence – all centre-backs – quite a lot since the turn of the year in a tactical change that makes Bauer the biggest loser.
As soon as his two rivals for first-team football got injured, Lennon adopted a system that doesn’t call for a right-back and that’s just plain bad luck.
Stephen Welsh, Kristoffer Ajer and Christopher Jullien were Celtic’s defenders in their win at Hamilton this past weekend.
And until the Bhoys lose a game in this 3-5-2 system, it doesn’t make sense for Lennon to revert to a back four, which would benefit Bauer.
Even if he does, the Celtic manager revealed this week that Frimpong will be back in training by Monday.
The 28-year-old has been an unused substitute more times than he’s been on the pitch for the Scots this season.
And with Lennon’s formation tweak, coupled with Frimpong’s imminent return, Bauer’s luck doesn’t look like changing any time soon.
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