Brendan Rodgers has praised Celtic’s French connection and has acknowledged that he will seek to find a way to pair Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard together this season.

The duo have had a bright start to the season with Dembele netting a brace against Alashkert on Wednesday night in a performance in which Edouard was also on song.

The two Parisians are expected to dominate Celtic’s forward line over the coming months in what would be a deviation from the way that Rodgers has set Celtic up to play in recent seasons.

The Celtic manager has experimented with Leigh Griffiths and Dembele up front but there seems to be more balance to the team with the two Frenchmen leading the line.

“They are different types,” said Rodgers. “People have talked about it since I’ve been here about playing two up front but it’s about having the right profiles.

“Odsonne is a link player that can make a lot of it work up there because he’s different to Moussa and Leigh.

“Leigh is a fantastic out and out goalscorer, Moussa as you’ve seen over the last couple of years has other qualities but wants to score goals. Odsonne wants to score goals but he’s a player that can come in underneath and link the game very well.

“I’ve been really pleased because we’ve been looking at different things over the course of pre-season but [against Alashkert] it was fairly slick and the shape morphed really well.

“It gives us lots of attacking options and a lot of speed in our game.

“When you have that level of quality you want to try to find ways to put it in. It’s never easy because you have to pick not the best players, you pick the best team but when you have got real, top players like that then you want to find a way that can make it work.

“But you always have to be within balance, that’s important. They played but not necessarily together, Odsonne can play off the left side so he played in a different space really.

“But it’s very promising and I think we’ve got other player that can come into that as well.”

Dembele was forced off on Wednesday night midway through the second period after feeling a tightness in his hamstring. It is thought that his substitution was precautionary and Rodgers, having seen much to be optimistic about as the partnership is in its early stages, is hopeful that this there is much more to come from the duo.

Moussa came back fit, he’s came back strong, he’s came back leaner and light,” said Rodgers. “He’s had a good rest. I also think he respects the talent that Odsonne is and how they compliment each other.

“Their movement patterns are necessarily the same, they work in different spaces but he respects he’s got somewhere there that’s a really good player also.

“It’s the cohesion that pleases us all really, each part of the team functions quite well.

“They are very close, the French boys. They are fantastic. For young guys, I have never had a problem with any of them. They behave themselves. Their first love is their football. They love football and they come into work hard every day.

“The French lads and Eboue [Kouassi] is in there too, their love for football is clear. They go out but they are not over-exuberant in what they do and they are super professional. They come in and do the work and they want to learn. They are a joy to work with.”

One of the benefits of the French youngsters shining at Celtic is that is develops the club’s reputation for showcasing emerging talent.

“I think if you are on the outside looking in you see Celtic as a great club for that,” said Rodgers. “They may not be here for a long period of time but they come in and they learn to love the club. They also see that they are improving. Moussa came in for a purpose and that was to get better and improve and play at a big club to win trophies. He has done that. Olivier is exactly the same.

“He has come in to improve and he is a terrific talent. Odsonne had his year on loan and we have a good relationship with PSG and us taking him strengthens that relationship but more importantly it gave us top class talent. Eboue too is young.

“He was unfortunate not to play more so through the form of Scott Brown and through injury. He is still very focussed and he is a really important player for us. If you are looking in from France then you see that Celtic is a good option for you."