It wasn’t the best of Celtic matches to watch when they played Riga, but there were some encouraging highlights and a definite star continuing to shine brightly.
Neil Lennon will have seen and heard fans views and media comments about the performance. He’s probably already aware of reactions to his own assessment post match. Lennon’s positive comments maybe aren’t as aligned to the fans’ views, but then he can’t throw the players under a bus either.
There is a common point of agreement for almost everyone though, and that’s quite a rarity. What about Jeremiah Frimpong then? Who wasn’t taken by his skill, drive, speed and enthusiasm as he took the game to Riga creating several chances in their box?
The Celtic youngster was thoroughly impressive and undoubtedly deserving of the Celtic TV Man of the Match award. There are often several different Man of the Match awards from sponsors and elsewhere, this was surely unanimous across them all last night.
Chris Sutton and Celtic fans alike were quick to praise Frimpong and want to see him play each week.
Well played Jeremie Frimpong👏👏
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) September 24, 2020
Frimpong has to play every week over james Forrest.
— Ryan Clifford (@Ryanclifford11) September 24, 2020
As was Lennon in his post match comments:
"“Frimpong was superb second half. He’s put two beautiful crosses in and we should have scored off both of them. Then he comes up with another really good one. Albian makes a good run across the defender and a fantastic finish by Moi.”"
Frimpong didn’t start the match, and that got a few questions raised on social media before the game. But it seemed a sensible enough formation to start with. James Forrest picked up an injury after 35 minutes which will likely keep him out of the Hibernian game on Sunday. Frimpong stepped into the gap perfectly and will likely be asked to do so again at the weekend, there could be strong questions if he isn’t!
There have been questions surrounding James Forrest’s form for quite a while and now the calls for Jeremie Frimpong to replace now that Celtic are playing with a 3-5-2 are growing stronger among the fans. And probably rightfully so by his performances in the wing-back, which he seems to be made for.
Apart from his sparkling form, Frimpong’s nature and enthusiasm are great to see and hopefully infectious.
Celtic carry some of his comments on the club site:
"“If I come on, I want to do my best for the team. I want to create chances for the team and, obviously, I want my team to win, so when I got the call to come on, I was delighted and I wanted to give it my all and that’s what I did.“Whenever I got the ball, in my head it was all about helping the team. We needed something, we needed to get through, so as soon as I got the ball I just attacked.“"
Let’s not forget either that he made his debut at Celtic exactly a year ago today. A short time with some impressive performances. At some point he will be one of the players attracting enormous interest and with huge sums being discussed for potential transfers. In the meantime let’s enjoy watching him as much as he enjoys playing.