Calvin Miller notched his first ever senior goal last night, but it came in a 5-1 mauling at Aberdeen.
The Celtic youngster is spending the season on-loan at Dundee. So far, it’s been one hell of an educaton for him in the deep end, with the Dees in a huge relegation battle.
Despite that, he has made 14 top-team appearances as he looks to develop his game. Aberdeen was the latest of those, but he’s been a steady performer so far in what’s been a very difficult situation.
Against Aberdeen last night, Miller scored a fine effort. Collecting the ball in front of the Dons defence Miller spun onto hs left foot before rattling home a fine effort at the near-post.
He did struggle to contain Aberdeen’s Conor McLennan last night, but he’s doing fine at the Dee. Receiving regular first-team exposure, he’s gaining an understanding of the opposition he could have to face with Celtic when he returns.
Whether there’s a place for Miller or not in Brendan Rodgers’ squad is an interesting one. Kieran Tierney will forever be the first-choice left-back in Glasgow until he decides to leave.
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There’s also back-up there in Emilio Izaguirre. Despite his shocking performance at Easter Road, he’s still a highly reliable figure who can come in and do a job.
Where are the opportunities for Miller
Therefore, where are the opportunities going to come from for Miller? Even though he’s first-reserve, Izaguirre has only managed to make six appearances throughout the first half of the season. If Miller came in as third-choice, he would be lucky to see the bench most-weeks.
It’s a similar situation to the one that Anthony Ralston has down the other flank.
Despite being a natural right-back, Ralston has only made the matchday squads this season on seven occasions this season. He’s yet to make an appearance in any of them. That’s because Mikael Lustig, Kristoffer Ajer, and Cristian Gamboa have all been featuring ahead of the Scottish-born youngster.
The only way Miller can truly make his mark is to excel at Dundee. So much so that Rodgers can’t ignore him as much when he returns. Last night’s defeat certainly didn’t fall into that category despite his goal, but he has plenty of time to become more of a standout.
It’ll be interesting to see whether he does make the grade at Parkhead, but at least he’s off and running on the goal charts.