Celtic’s big Irish striker needs an attacking system to thrive. Ireland needs to find one.

The other day, I noticed a bit of online chatter about Big Adam Idah after he played in the Republic of Ireland v Senegal game. In the opinion of a lot of people, he didn’t impress. Well, of course he didn’t impress them. Of course he didn’t get much time on the ball. This is exactly what we’ve talked about time and again—you build a system and then you find the players who can thrive in it.

Anything else just doesn’t work. It’s one of the reasons why Steve Clarke is floundering as Scotland manager. He keeps trying to wedge square pegs into round holes. He keeps shoehorning players into roles that don’t suit them, and he has an obsession with cramming too many of the same type of player into the team and then moulding the system around that.

It is not an accident that Idah has done better in a Celtic shirt than he did at Norwich or with the Republic of Ireland. It’s not an accident that he’s scoring goals in massive games for us when he couldn’t do that at his former club. It’s not an accident that Kyogo has gone to Rennes and hasn’t hit the heights. It’s not an accident that someone like Matt O’Riley could go to Brighton and not quite cut it either.

These guys excelled in a very specific playing style.

And for players like Kyogo and Idah, that system brings out their absolute best. You will never see their top form in a different system.

If you’ve watched how the Republic of Ireland plays, it’s night and day from Celtic. No wonder Adam isn’t getting the chances to show what he can do. That’s not to say he played badly against Senegal. All told, he didn’t. He was physically strong, he roughed up their defenders, and he gave them problems.

But a striker’s job is ultimately to score goals, and that’s how he’ll be judged—rightly or wrongly—no matter where he plays.

But if you don’t play him in his best role, you’re not going to get his best. Same with Kyogo. Same with O’Riley. Kyogo wasn’t as lethal under Rodgers because Rodgers has a different concept of what a striker should do than Ange did. Kyogo was still putting in a shift, still doing well, but not as often and not as effectively.

I feel a bit sorry for national team bosses at lower-ranked nations, because they don’t have the luxury of building a squad to fit a system. They can’t just buy new players. But that’s not an excuse for Clarke trying to squeeze both Tierney and Robertson into the same side, or for playing—as he did last night—with four central midfielders.

That was as imbalanced a Scotland side as you could imagine. But this isn’t unusual for him. He does it constantly.

You can see the damage it does when you play a guy out of position or in an unfamiliar role. I was raging after the last Scotland game when he had McTominay wide right—one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe right now—and he stuck him out there, where his ability to influence the game and get into the box was completely nullified. It was an act of mind-bending stupidity.

Celtic players are conditioned to play front-foot football.

Even though I’ve written today about needing a change in system, we’re not going to ditch the idea of playing attacking football. I’ve lost count of how many players have left Celtic—players who lit it up here—and then floundered at more defensive clubs, and folk wonder why. It’s obvious why.

So I’m not judging Adam Idah based on what he does in a Republic of Ireland shirt. He will play tonight, and I don’t know if he’ll do any better.

That team plays nothing like Celtic. The chances he gets for us—even against strong opposition like Aston Villa—he’s not going to see those in an Ireland jersey because they don’t play the same relentless style.

If you want to see the best of Adam Idah, then you need to play the kind of football we do. The same was true for Kyogo. The same is true for O’Riley. It’s why their clubs aren’t seeing them light it up now.

And there’s a clear warning there for any player thinking about leaving Celtic. If Kuhn or Maeda thinks they’re going to be better off in pure football terms somewhere else, they need to think again.

Unless those clubs play the way we do, they won’t get the same chances. They won’t have the same space. They won’t make the same impact.

Idah was signed to suit the Rodgers style, and that’s why he’s doing better here than anywhere else in his career. That’s why Maeda is thriving in this team. The machine works like it was built for them. So, I hope Big Adam doesn’t let the critics get in his head. I hope he ignores the noise and just gets on with it.

If the Ireland manager wants to see the best of Adam Idah, he’ll need to play to his strengths. And honestly, I think Adam is the best forward Ireland has right now. They should be building the system to suit him, not wasting him.