Celtic: 4 Reasons Why Stokes And Griffiths Can Form A Great Partnership

4. Left Foot, Right Foot

Contrary to the Stokes/Hooper partnership, the introduction of Griffiths along side Anthony up front gives us two strikers that offer a strong left foot and a strong right foot, respectively. This may seem slightly irrelevant to some, but it comes with a couple of benefits. The first one being that it gives the rest of the team a bit of knowledge and understanding about what kind of ball ether striker will want to run onto. If you're passing to Stokes, he'll want it on his right, and for Griffiths, his left. Play it to Griffiths' right, and he can use his pace to cut in and take it on his left-foot at speed to wrong-foot and beat the defender, and vice versa for Stokes. Most Celtic strikers in recent years have been prominently right-footed, so passing the ball with the motive for them to control with their right has always been more favoured. Now that we have both, more types of passes can be played to the strikers which could previously have looked a little risky. It all depends on their positioning on the field of course, and that brings me to my next point. Due to the type of ball either striker will want, they are probably going to occupy different sides of the field. You would expect Griffiths to occupy the left-hand side of the field when attacking, and the opposite for Stokes. After some time, midfielders like Stefan Johansson and Kris Commons who like to play long balls will have more knowledge of where their strikers will be when moving forward, as well as knowing what kind of pass they would want. Also, if the strikers can occupy their 'side' over a number of games, switching it up at times would provide a bit of surprise to defenders, who no-doubt do a lot of homework on how Celtic attack. Another point to make is that they're both established free-kick takers, so a left and right footed pair hanging over the ball is another benefit, although this doesn't have much to do with them as strikers, and there are other very established free-kick specialists in the team too.