MOTHERWELL defender Declan Gallagher joked that he was still looking for Odsonne Edouard after being on the end of a fairly torrid time from the Frenchman on Wednesday night at Fir Park.
Edouard netted the first and last goal of Celtic’s 4-0 win with Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson describing the striker as ‘unplayable.’ Former Celt Chris Sutton insisted that Edouard is the closest thing he has since to Henrik Larsson since the Swede’s exit from the club and Gallagher has accepted that the striker is a cut above.
“I just think when Edouard is on that kind of form he is unplayable,” said the defender. “I was trying to get tight to him during the match but I am still actually looking for him now to see if I can find him to get tight to him.
“He was excellent. It’s hard to play against someone when they are on that kind of form, scoring two goals. His freekick summed up the quality he has.
“He’s definitely the best I’ve come up against this season. His one-touch play, his link-up, he’s two-footed, just everything about him. He’s got absolutely everything, all the attributes. It’s hard to stop him.
“His all round general play is great. He can drop off into the hole, he can go in behind, his movement is great. Half the time you think he’s jogging about but he’s just an exceptional player.”
Despite describing it as a “horrible experience” to play against Edouard, Gallagher accepted that there might be a few lessons he can take from the encounter.
“The fact he’s about five years younger than me I don’t think I am learning,” he joked. “But it’s a horrible experience playing against him because when he is on his game he is unstoppable. But it’s a good experience to come up against a guy like that and see the standard you have to get up to.”
Despite the back-to-back defeats to Livingston and Celtic, Motherwell remain in third spot with Gallagher optimistic that the Fir Park side can rediscover winning ways this weeks.
Motherwell face St Mirren in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup in Paisley as the focus turns away from the league.
“We have to get the last couple of results out of the way ahead of cup weekend,” said Gallagher. “The last two results have not been great but the result at Aberdeen has gone for us tonight and we are still in third place. We have to get that out the system and look forward to the cup and try to get through to the next round.
“For 45 minutes we matched Celtic and we showed we are up for the press. We played three up top against their three at the back. We went man for man.
‘”It wasn’t ideal losing the early goal but we had chances ourselves. We matched them for 45 but after that they completely dominated the match.”
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