Already there are dissenting voices being raised on the subject of Miku. The Venezuelan arrived on deadline day but has been overshadowed by the less heralded Efe Ambrose who stood quietly beside him as they both arrived. Now, after drawing a blank at the weekend in a painful defeat to Kilmarnock much of the anger for the energy-free performance has been pointed at Miku.
But is this fair? And why is it so?
The answer to the first question is simple; no. The lad has come to Celtic Park with a goal-scoring pedigree in La Liga but has never been majorly prolific in his career. To expect a South American to arrive at Celtic Park via Spain’s cultured top flight and just to start banging them is a tad naive.
To date he has made 5 appearances and has yet to score. The charge being laid at his door is that he is lazy, disinterested and simply not good enough. Yet, from the limited time he has been on the pitch he looks very able to link up play – indeed, at the weekend he laid on 2 or 3 decent chances. There is no doubt he needs to speed up his movement and release of the ball but as he adjusts to the frenetic pace of the game over here his class as a footballer should start to tell.
Many players have trodden the path Miku is on and some fail (Bangura & Rasmussen) and others succeed (Larsson & McDonald). That is, coming from smaller team with some reputation and having to quickly realise just how big a club you have landed at. The game changes at Celtic. The pace is fiery. The opposition play as if in a cup final every week against you. The expectation is to win and win handsomely every week. The pressure is intense if you are not used to it and bigger players than Miku have come to Celtic in recent years and simply failed.
The difference here is that Miku is far too early in his career at Celtic to be written off. He is undoubtedly talented but needs to adapt and to do so quickly. Rumours have started that Miku wants to go back to Getafe already. If he does do this in January then so be it. What have we lost? Nothing really. I suspect these rumours are just that; rumours.
In all, Miku should come good if given the support. I will trust Lennon’s judgement on this. If he persists with Miku we know the Venezuelan is looking the part in training. I seem to recall Martin O’Neill doing the same with a certain John Hartson after the big Welshman drew a blank in his first ten games at Celtic. That didn’t turn out so bad, did it?
Watched him on Sat and his fitba intelligence,in terms of linking play and awareness of teamates , seems all there as you would expect given his CV but his demeanor at times makes Sami look like Broony on a Sunny D high
Needs more time though agreed
Crazy to write him off at this stage and I seem to recall not so long ago gary hooper getting stick for being allegedly lazy and disinterested, give him a run of games and he will prove his worth
I enjoyed the article, just one thing on the title; his surname is Fedor, not Flores.
When that’s been corrected, feel free to delete this message.
Good article, Hail Hail
Cheers. I was wondering who would be the first to call that out. His full name is Nicolas Ladislao Fedor Flores. In my attempt to riff on What’s Eating Gilbert Grape for the headline I thought Flores sounded better.
Crap story but that’s it!
Ah ok, cool. HH
He lookedc crap to me on saturday far too slow.
may be best to drop him now and let our younger players in more such as Tony Watt, I always worry about loan players committment to the cause .Hope I am proved wrong though