Liel Abeda finished his debut season at Celtic with 15 goals and 11 assists in all formats and thanks to his impressive numbers and good ability he was also selected as the outstanding young player in the Scottish League in 2021/22, but he also started 2022/23 well. Although the 20-year-old winger currently finds himself out of the green team, yesterday (Saturday) he again came off the bench and scored a spectacular goal – his first of the season – in a 3:1 win over Ross Quanti in the second round.
In an interview he gave last week, Abda told Celtic’s official website that he really misses defender Nir Bitton, who left Glasgow in favor of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and in Scotland they certainly feared that the departure of his “big brother”, as Abda called Bitton, would have a negative effect on the young star who with his first goal For the season removed some of the concerns.
When coach Ange Postecoglou was asked yesterday if he was afraid that Avda would struggle this season when he was alone at Celtic, without the presence of Nir Bitton, he addressed it in detail: “I understand it to a certain extent and I think that Liel just spoke honestly and told how he feels, but at the same time I am also convinced Liel doesn’t need me to protect him. He doesn’t need a big brother at Celtic, he can manage on his own. Last season he wore big guys’ pants when he was thrown in and managed to score and cook goals.”
The coach also said: “Lyal was very close to Nero, who himself was fantastic and helped the team a lot, but Lyal knows what he wants from himself and what his goals are. Like all our players, foreign and local, we provide them with a support network and we stand by them and help them in everything “.