The Best Defence In The League Is Set To Get Stronger
Last season, our back line was maligned by everyone from the media to some of our own fans.
I had to constantly pinch myself as a reminder that I wasn’t actually dreaming it; looking at the league table and the stats we had the best defence in the country.
So where in the Hell was all the criticism of these guys coming from?
An unfair perception that Starfelt wasn’t up to snuff for starters. An unfair perception that Greg Taylor was a sub-par option that we were stuck with at left back because we had a full squad to rebuild and had to compromise somewhere.
The media would also have you believe we’d have done better had Craig Gordon been in goal.
Yawn. What a bore all the hype over him has become.
The truth is, our defence was excellent last season but improvements can be made to it.
There needs to be a central defender who we can rotate at our leisure and who can offer an alternative to the starters. Someone to make them push themselves to even greater levels by providing competition.
If we get the right guy in he might even supplant one of the current two.
We all know that Greg Taylor isn’t the best left back in the world.
I like the guy, and I think he’s a more than adequate backup.
Had we been on our toes just a little more in the League Cup semi-final, had we played with a little more intensity, he would have been one of the heroes of the whole campaign for his opening goal … but there is better out there.
And the chances are that we are going to sign at least one player in this position, as a first choice starter. That might be unfair to Greg, but it’s necessary if this squad is to grow and develop into what it’s capable of being.
So big changes are ahead.
We’re also adding a bloody good stand in for Joe Hart, a change that is very necessary because I think all of our nightmares were haunted last season by a ghastly “What if …?” question in relation to the big guy.
Now if worst comes to worst we’ll have it covered.
The best defence in the country is set to get stronger.
That, on its own, puts critical points in the bank.
That, on its own, could be enough to swing this in our favour.
It’s hard to disagree with much of your analysis. Personally speaking I think the January signings were essential. They, poor Ideguchi excepted, slotted in impressively and allowed Ange to rotate the squad while allowing the long term injuries to get themselves fully fit before throwing them back into the fray. Ideguchi will be like a new signing when the season starts.
If we do sign a centre back, I hope he has the ability to break forward with the ball in the way Ayer often did. It will be another key with which to unlock a stubborn defence. Like you I would like to see an enforcer who can shield the defence while allowing Calmac more freedom to get forward.
Roll on the new season!
I wouldn`t get too cocky if I were you. Old Firm FC may be getting on in years but they are only a matter of weeks older than when they last gave Celtic a difficult game. We`ve been hearing for too long now about their imminent demise and they are still hanging in
there. I fear, with Celtic now starting to drag their feet regarding Jota, remember the McGinn saga?, that Postecoglu could suddenly
find himself in the same situation as Rodgers.
And that`s me being positive, by the way.
You’re maybe being overly pessimistic in response to JF’s over optimism. I’m confident out signings will be sorted and OK. But you’re definitely right with regards old firm FC. We continue to write them off at our peril. Whether they are good or bad we must act as if they are a threat and make sure we are as good as we can be. We also need to massively change how we set up against them. Sitting back cost us the Scottish cup semi final and we did it again a few weeks later and didn’t win.
We’re night and day in terms of the chaos of pre season compared to last year, but we have a lot of improvement still to do before we’re where I’d like us to be.
I’m in suspended animation until the season begins.
An Aussie Celtic Down under.
We are retaining the bulk of our squad – and hopefully is signed.
We have the first ‘proper’ pre-season in many years – without pre-qualifying Euro rounds.
Add in a couple of quality additions, and we could/should be set up for a solid start to the season.
An unknown though is how the World Cup break in Nov/December will impact the team’s momentum, and will some players return tired / injured?
Should be an interesting season though: both at home and in Europe.
* Hopefully Jota is signed.
We have lost more than we have gained with Rogic and Bitton now gone and if we loose Jotta we are looking at second spot we have nothing in midfield against rangers of note and that includes McGregor