Few would’ve expected Carl Starfelt to be in the Celtic line-up against Hearts on Thursday night. And even fewer would’ve expected such a confident performance from a player returning from injury.
That’s what we got from Starfelt. Criticised in his early spell at the club, he’s been a key component of a defence that’s been excellent domestically.
Starfelt, who helped to start Celtic on a fantastic unbeaten run of games in the league, was crucial as an attacking Hearts side went at the Hoops at Parkhead. Comfortable on the ball, but also integral in stemming the offensive flow of the Jambos, he was the worthy recipient of Man of the Match honours.
And he’s credited the run Celtic are to mental toughness. And, an ability to mix things up when necessary.
The Sweden international said [Herald]:
“You can’t only play one way.
“Everyone knows we want to dominate games and have the ball. We want to be in the opponents’ half but sometimes you have to show resistance because you will not dominate the game for 90 minutes. There are times you have to show something else.
“The team is getting more comfortable in the way we are playing. We are getting to know each other better.
“I am not getting carried away with just one performance. I’ll continue to work hard but I think we are all finding a little bit of security in our system and we are on a good run now, so we have to keep enjoying playing football and keep winning games. That’s what we want to do.”
After criticism over lack of Celtic “Plan B”, Carl Starfelt is showing resilience is the way
There’s no getting away from it; Celtic needed to make massive improvements in defence this season.
After the shambolic lack of fight and organisation shown in 20-21, we needed leadership, better situational awareness and aerial prowess.
Through Joe Hart, Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers, Celtic have all three this season. Long may it continue. But as Starfelt says, it’s about doing this longer-term. One game does not a season make.
It was mighty encouraging though. Especially given the soft goals we’d conceded to Hearts earlier in the season. One of the league’s on-form attacks was kept schtum for 90 minutes. That’s massively encouraging.
The dream, obviously, is to have a relentless attacking unit, while keeping things tight at the back. As the team learns their roles to precision, there’s bound to be some trade-off. While the Bhoys have been less clinical, they’ve still managed to see out important games.
No doubt, we’d be feeling very different had Hearts or Aberdeen had picked anything up from our last two matches.
Starfelt will be integral in maintaining standards at the back. One of a number of international players at Celtic these days, there’s pedigree there.
Read more: Celtic favourite Chris Sutton on what he believes Bhoys should do against Real Betis
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