Celtic: Is Odsonne Edouard as good as Moussa Dembele?
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Odsonne Edouard or Moussa Dembele?
With 24 goals in 37 games for Celtic this season, Odsonne Edouard is no stranger to praise and attention from across Scottish football.
The Parisian is now routinely grabbing games by the scruff of the neck and winning them single-handedly.
But just how good has Edouard been for Celtic? And how does he compare to Celtic's last French phenomenon, Moussa Dembele?
BBC Scotland takes a look at the numbers to try to find out.
Edouard or 'absolute monster' Dembele?
The comparisons between Edouard and the man that made a £19.7m move to Lyon in 2018 are, of course, inevitable when the former's ability is on show each week.
Not only do they both come from Paris and happen to be of similar age but each also took on an identical role at Celtic: match-winner-in-chief.
But just how similar are they from a technical point of view?
"They're different," notes Celtic's Leigh Griffiths, who has played alongside both strikers.
"Odsonne likes to come and get the ball to feet and dribble at players, whereas Moussa was an absolute monster of a guy. He was a freak for his age with the size of him."
When we look at each player's stats we can quickly see what Griffiths means by different types of goal scorers.
Dembele seemed to enjoy a slightly more direct route to goal during his time at Celtic, scoring 51 goals in 94 games for the Scottish club. In comparison, Edouard has amassed 56 in 118 games.
And when we break that down to how many each striker roughly scores per game it puts Dembele on 0.75 to Edouard's 0.66. Yet the former PSG academy graduate more than makes up for it with his ability to create goals as well as score them.
To date, Edouard has created 28 assists during his time at Celtic. Dembele, in comparison, only managed 18. Or, to put it another way, Edouard is averaging 0.33 assists per 90 minutes to Dembele's 0.26.
Remarkably, when we add both players' total contributions together (goals and assists per game) they come out with an almost identical figure. Dembele contribute 1.01 goals or assists per game for Celtic, while Edouard currently averages 0.99. They just do it in slightly different ways.
Can he eclipse Dembele?
Although Edouard seems to match Dembele's impressive Celtic record when it comes to goals and assists per game, there is still room for improvement at elite level.
Edouard's record in European competition is tremendous. The striker has nine goals and six assists in 27 games. However, all but two of those games have come in qualifying rounds or the Europa League.
Dembele, while scoring fewer goals and no assists, scored four goals in 10 Champions League group stage games. Celtic's current front man hasn't really had the chance to shine on that stage, aside from two minor substitute appearances.
Similarly, against Celtic's greatest foe Dembele just pips his compatriot. While Edouard's six goals and two assists in just six games against Rangers is a remarkable feat, it doesn't quite match Dembele's seven goals and four assists in eight.
As fantastic as Edouard has been in these high-pressure games, Dembele still has a slightly better record. However, Griffiths thinks Edouard is doing just as well, if not better.
"No disrespect to Moussa - he was a team player as well," said the Scotland international. "You saw what he brought to the team with his physical presence, his touch and his movement.
"Odsonne seems to have all of that in abundance as well and that seems to go unnoticed but now you see why we've paid the money for him.
"He's such a big talent and he's only going to get better as the games go on."