After his below par performance, for 45 minutes, in the League Cup Final, Celtic took their time reintroducing Moi Elyounoussi to first team action.
At Hampden at the start of December the on-loan winger was barely recognisable from the player that had scored twice against Hibs in the semi-final while picking up the October SPFL Player of the Month award.
Progress has been slow to date but if Elyounoussi is fully fit and recaptures his form from the autumn Neil Lennon has been handed a massive boost ahead of a critical phase of the season.
Although it was lower division opposition on an artificial pitch there were definite signs that Elyounoussi is ready for the challenges ahead, restoring a real left wing threat following the departures of Scott Sinclair, Lewis Morgan and injury to Mikey Johnston.
A breeze for Celtic in tough conditions 3-0… good to see Elyounoussi back…
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) February 9, 2020
The on-loan Southampton winger played his way into the match, after the break he looked like his old self despite some industrial treatment from the Clyde defenders. The close control, dribbling and burst of pace were all present with just the goal touch missing, so far.
Fitting him into the post winter break system will be something of a challenge for Lennon who already has Ryan Christie threatening Olivier Ntcham for a place in the team.
With two strikers and three at the back there is only one place on the left of the team with Greg Taylor looking more assured game by game.
The former Kilmarnock man is a left-back adapting to the wing-back role, with Celtic’s style of play the onus is on pushing forward which should open the door to Elyounoussi.
Selecting a team to play Hearts on Wednesday night will be quite a dilemma for Lennon with perhaps 15 players deserving of a place in the starting XI- hopefully the Jambos feel the full force of those options as another emphatic win is clocked up to maintain the 100% record of 2020.