Celtic are due to face Rosenberg on Wednesday for the second leg of their Champions League qualifying tie after a goalless stalemate at the Celtic Park. The trip to Norway would be a testing one, as the Celts will be without their top goal scorer of last season in the form of Moussa Dembele as the French gunman is out with a hamstring injury. Recovering from his calf injury, deputy striker Leigh Griffiths is also a doubt and the scenario looks quite worrying for the Glasgow giants.
After their sensational domestic treble win last season, Brendan Rodgers is laying a huge emphasis to the group cohesiveness and is backing his troops to perform yet again in a similar fashion. Unlike Rangers, the Hoops have not been very busy this summer and Kundai Benyu, Jonny Hayes and Olivier Ntcham have been their three signings. The tactical nous of Rodgers engineers one striker up front and considering that Dembele is out until mid-September, a poacher of notable calibre is the dire need of the hour.
Motherwell’s Louis Moult could be an appealing option for Celtic in order to cater to their striking needs and to also uplift the level of competition for bagging a place in the starting line-up of the former Liverpool boss. Moult banged 15 goals in 32 appearances for the Steelmen in the Scottish top flight last term and has the requisite experience of Scottish football under his belt. A very clinical finisher with an excellent eye for goals, the 25-year-old operates with sheer predatory instincts and is very good in the air.
Moult is physically strong and well-built and is someone who can score all sorts of goals. He creates chances for his teammates, is a decent asset to have for making the most of the set-pieces and knows where the net is. Besides, he has shown immense maturity and confidence and holds the ball meticulously up front which allows the midfielders to get into the equation and test the opposition’s goalkeeper. Having said that, will he be of any use for the white and green crops for short term as well as long term?
Celtic do not have any recognized striker in their books apart from Dembele and Griffiths and if they manage to get into the group stages of the elite club competition of Europe, they would need depth on every frontier to meet their engagements, rather than manoeuvring a false no.9 in their attacking setup. With Pedro Caixinha making some galvanizing additions to his arsenal at Rangers, bagging someone like Moult by Rodgers would make sense as if would be a signing to uplift the quality as well as the quantity of Celtic’s ranks.
