CHRIS SUTTON said his heart sank when he heard Neil Lennon claim Leigh Griffiths needs to do more on the training pitch and the player and manager may have a difference of opinion in that regard.
Leigh feels like he needs game time in order to get back to his best and he can’t get fitter unless he players. Lenny wants to see more on the training field so he can get more game time. It’s a vicious circle, but to the Celtic manager’s credit, he did start Leigh on Wednesday night and gave him most of the game.
Sutton told RecordSport he can’t believe the player is disagreeing with his manager, and if Neil Lennon has asked for more in training, Leigh should be getting his head down.
The game has moved on since Lennon’s playing days but he has certainly put more emphasis on training than ever before.
Had he done so the first time around as Celtic boss, Kris Commons would have been sitting on the bench most weeks instead of being Lennon’s top goal scorer!
You have to weigh things up sometimes, is Leigh a guy who can’t train harder than some of the players but who can deliver your twenty plus goals a season? Is that enough to keep him in the team.
Here’s Sutton’s view on the situation:
I’m not going to take a bat to someone every week for the same mistake. It’s gone. It’s about the here and now but when Neil said during the week that Griffiths was still not ready for a full 90 minutes, that he could be doing more on the training pitch and that the player may disagree, it made my heart sink.
If your manager tells you that you need to do more, you do it. Simple. I don’t care what your own feelings on the matter are. It’s the same in any walk of life. If your gaffer tells you to do something, you do it. That’s it. It’s not a debate. I only get annoyed with Griffiths at times because I rate him so highly.
Look at the two goals he has scored in the past six days. His finish in extra-time of the Scottish Cup Final against Hearts was all about speed of mind, agility and anticipation. Brilliant.
He had a couple of chances before scoring against Ross County, but kept putting himself in correct positions to deliver and his header to get onto the scoresheet was executed perfectly and textbook.
Griffiths is a sublime finisher and scores all types of goals. The fact he now has 120 for the club is an outstanding statistic. That takes some doing and it must be so frustrating for Neil that he can’t count on him all of the time because the talent is unquestioned.
