This article is part of Football FanCast's The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more... 

Celtic suffered a devastating setback on Tuesday night, but the performance of Odsonne Edouard was nothing short of sensational.

On the chalkboard

Every cloud has silver linings, and the cloud that CFR Cluj left over Parkhead on Tuesday was humiliating for the fans and club.

The Romanian outfit, who sit 288th in UEFA’s club rankings, considerably lower than Rangers’ upcoming European opponents FC Midtjylland, who are 103rd, won 4-3 as Neil Lennon’s defence capitulated in the second half.

At the other end of the pitch though, Edouard played a part in all three goals, and proved once again he is developing into an extremely well-rounded striker.

Mr. Do-it-all

Goals are always the first priority for a forward, and Celtic’s young Frenchman certainly knows how to get them. He has notched 37 already in his short time at the club, including several in big games like Old Firms and European qualifiers.

Tuesday night was perhaps his greatest Hoops performance to date though, as he showed he has so much more to his game than just those goals.

The 21 year-old produced a lovely dummy to fool the defence and allow James Forrest the space to open Celtic’s scoring, showing fantastic awareness of the picture around him, which is crucial for any elite player.

He then calmly slotted in the side’s second after a defensive mistake, not hesitating for a single moment before firing a low finish into the corner, showing fantastic reaction speed and the ability to get shots off quickly in tight spaces.

Finally, the third goal might have been his best involvement of the lot, as his wonderful movement took him behind the visitors’ defence before he slotted a lovely cut-back for Ryan Christie to tap in.

Countless strikers would simply smash that chance at the near post and hope for the best, mess up the pass or even hesitate for too long and not get the ball off at all before the goalkeeper smothers.

All three goal involvements showed a different skillset that “French Eddy” possesses, and if fans are going to take anything from the game now that the dust has settled, it should be that they have a truly top prospect capable of doing a little bit of everything for his side.

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