There’s a good debate to be had over what Chris Sutton has been saying in the media today about who he regards as the most important player at Celtic.
I found his comments very interesting indeed, and they are certainly worthy of a discussion.
“Cameron Carter-Vickers is Celtic’s most important player. I’m not saying he’s the most skilful or the most talented in terms of ability … but, in terms of importance to the side and being missed when he isn’t there, Carter-Vickers has long been in the irreplaceable category. That’s why shelling out £6 million in the summer to get him permanently was a key priority.”
Everyone always focusses on our attacking players, and indeed they are outstanding.
But I said before the two loanees were signed that Carter Vickers was the more important one of the two and in spite of the brilliant performances of our front men this season it has been perfectly obvious that the back line has done its own job exceptionally well.
I disagree – completely – with the assessment of Andy Walker that our defence was “bullied” by the St Mirren players.
But the defence looked far less well organised than usual, and I thought even a little all over the place.
Carter Vickers would have steadied the ship.
He would have marshalled the players and made sure that everyone did their own job even as he was doing his.
This is what you want from a top class centre back, and we’re lucky to have him.
The thing is, the defence can’t fall apart every time he isn’t in the side. That would be to invite disaster. So it’s important that others step up to fill the gap when he isn’t immediately available.
Sutton is probably right in a sense to say he’s our most important player.
He’s also right to say that he isn’t our best player.
The front men have a lock on that, and because middle to front are the sexy areas of the team they will always get the headlines and the glory.
But the backline is just as vital, and we saw that against St Mirren.
Even if I don’t agree that our defenders were bullied, they certainly looked all over the place without his steadying presence in their ranks. That needs to be worked on, even if Carter Vickers is back from his injury soon, which I’m sure we are all crossing our fingers that he will be.
A defence is only as good as its weakest link … he’s our strongest player in that area and I would agree that we look a lesser team without the big man being in it.
CCV is definitely the most important defensive player – currently.
Of course, it’s all subjective but if the team had only one player who was guaranteed to never miss a game – I’d always go for CalMac.
But what we learned against St.Mirren is that there has to be better coaching / training to improve the cover for when CCV is missing again?
Thing is James, we missed CCV, that’s true. However we’re also missing Starfleet. That’s two centre backs that are influencial to the back four. We coped without Starfleet but lossed that confidence in that area when we were reduced to the, and others. Welsh is an excellent defender, as is Jenz but they rarely play together. They play as cover for either of the main CBs. It led to our back four being an unfamiliar lineup and it told on the day. The game has gone now and we need to focus on making sure that Four CBs can interact with each other when required. CCV is our standout, but he will not be able to play every game so the others need to be able to cover.
Starfleet? Predictive text’s fault.
We were all stating the importance of CCV last year, that’s why we wanted him signed. Sutton’s remark is auld news
Before Carter-Vickers and Starfelt settled things down for us, we used to be very vulnerable to cross balls and long throws into our box. That weakness reared it’s head again when we lost to St Mirren. It’s no coincidence both of our best central defenders were not playing.