Celtic captain Scott Brown has claimed Oliver Burke is the fastest striker he has every played ahead of this Thursday’s mammoth Valencia clash, as reported by The Scottish Sun.
Burke’s raw power and pace was on full display on Sunday as he set up two goals for Scott Sinclair with fierce, direct running.
Brown believes it’s an ability that scares opposition defenders and is backing his team to score goals against the Spaniards when they visit this week.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, the Hoops legend said:
In terms of pace and power, Oli is by far the quickest I’ve played with up there.
People won’t keep a high line because of that pace. It scares people more than anything.
It’s great to actually see someone create something from nothing. He touches it past the guy and then he knows nine times out of 10 he will beat a defender for pace.
With our three forwards — with Oli, Scott Sinclair and Jamesy Forrest, as well as Timo Weah — we have got pace everywhere. If people want to press the game then you’ve got that long pass in behind for them to take up.
The way they are all playing just now they are in great form and you would fancy them to score goals. Thursday is a big European night and that’s what we want at Celtic.
Brown is full of praise for his teammates but he isn’t playing too shabbily himself at the moment and rocketed in a belter of a goal against St Johnstone in yesterday’s cup match.
Celtic have now won their last seven matches, scoring 21 goals with reply, and while the standard of teams in that run is below what we will face on Thursday, the players are full of confidence and ready to test themselves against a La Liga outfit.
The captain is right to point out Burke’s pace as now being a key asset to this Hoops side and he is now in line to start the UEFA Europa League clash even Odsonne Edouard has returned.
Can he leave the Valencia defenders in his dust too?