Celtic may have found out how to get the best out of Camilo Duran while playing him out of position on Wednesday night. The Colombian put on a clinic against LASK in the Champions League qualifying playoffs, scoring twice as the Bhoys romped to a 3-0 win.
Duran scored two classy goals to pick up where he left off last season with Qarabag, when he scored five times in the Champions League league phase.
It was the best we have seen from Duran in a Celtic shirt, even though he did score against Dundee United last weekend, and that is mainly because of his position.
The ÂŁ5.5million summer signing has had to play on the right wing due to ÂŁ11million summer signing Kasper Hogh playing in the number nine position. That is not likely to change while Hogh is fit, with the Dane a real presence even when he is not scoring goals, and it suits Celtic's system because of the way he can bring wingers into the game. Effective wing play is vital to Martin O'Neill's system.
So, the question now becomes how Celic can get the best out of Duran while playing him out of position. The answer may have emerged on Wednesday night. The forward was given far more licence to drift into other attacking areas, coming centrally and even drift as far over as the left on occasion.
And even with that licence, Duran tracked back and did his winger duties very well, even late in the game, which O'Neill acknowledged afterwards. He said: "His goals were terrific, his play was great. His running back, helping full-backs, helping Colby (Donovan) out on a number of occasions. It was just a magnificent performance. And if he stays clear of injury, he’s going to be a really, really good player.
“Whatever we paid for Duran, I think he has paid his ticket by now. I don’t think it was an awful lot of money when you consider some of the fees that they’re talking about for the Premier League.
“I think he’s a real bargain – £4.5million (plus £1m in add-ons) or something like that there.
“The centre-forward (Hogh) has given us a bit of presence there, which I don’t think we had last year, despite Daizen (Maeda) probably winning the league for us single-handedly. It’s nice to have that.”
Whether Duran can sustain such a versatile and high work-rate role, playing with license to drift forward but also with the expectation of helping out defensively, remains to be seen. But it does look as though that is the best way to extract all of his attacking qualities without being able to play him centrally.
And hats off to the Colombian. Most strikers being asked to play out wide would not be desperately chasing back an attacker all the way to the byline in close to the 80th minute. That's the attitude Celtic need.
Add us as a preferred source on Google