Moussa Dembele scored his 10th Celtic goal of the season on Sunday.
Kris Commons has suggested to The Daily Mail that Moussa Dembele’s goal return for Celtic this season is indicative of his decline.
The 21-year-old markman scored his 10th goal of the season in all competitions as Celtic beat Aberdeen 2-0 at Pittodrie on Sunday.
It was, however, the Frenchman’s 27th game of the 2017-18 campaign and it’s obvious that he hasn’t replicated the red-hot form that he showed last season.
On February 25th of last year, Dembele scored twice against Hamilton to reach 28 goals in all competitions, and Celtic legend Commons believes that his disappointing attempt to match his heroics of last term is being exposed in a big way.
“Dembele had 31 goals in all competitions at the start of March 2017. His header at Pittodrie was just his 10th of this season,” he told The Daily Mail.
“You would expect a Celtic midfielder to be hitting that amount come this part of a campaign. For a striker who has been touted as worth £25million or more, it should be standard issue before Christmas.
“The fact Dembele has only just reached that number shows how much he has struggled with injuries, form and confidence.”
It can’t have been easy for Dembele to be the same animal he was last season; not only because he caused expectation levels to rise in a big way, which in itself brings its own pressure, but because there is constantly speculation about his future and it must be difficult focusing on football when such off-the-field rumours crop up.
Nevertheless, he is a brilliant striker and there was nothing fortunate about his goalscoring form last term, but you wonder whether Celtic fans will see that player in their shirt ever again.
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