Celtic centre-back Carl Starfelt believes the Hoops are improving on their set-pieces after a discussion in-house about their issues.
In the early stages of 2022, the Hoops appeared to be struggling at both ends of the penalty area. Celtic were struggling to be much of a goalscoring threat from free-kicks and corners, whilst we were a soft touch in our own penalty box from the same situations.
We shipped dreadful set-piece goals against the likes of Aberdeen and Dundee whilst Livingston created several opportunities against us from dead-ball situations. However, in recent games against Dundee United and Ross County, Celtic have defended more stoutly whilst we’ve managed to be more of a threat up the other end.
Maeda has scored 2 goals from corners against Livi and County respectively, whilst Cameron Carter-Vickers volleyed home from a free-kick delivery against St Mirren. And Starfelt believes these are signs of improvements as we look ahead to the title run-in.
Speaking at a press conference in which 67HailHail were in attendance, Starfelt said: “Of course we’ve conceded some goals at set-pieces, but we’ve also scored some goals from set-pieces. It’s one of the things we’ve talked about and I think we’re continuing to improve in that area as well.
“Today it looked good, we didn’t give them too much on set-pieces so I hope we can keep going like that.
“I’ve had some opportunities [to score]. I was pretty close against Livingston for example but for a good save. But it’s not important that I score goals right now. We score goals from set-pieces which is the most important thing, whether it’s me or someone else that scores I don’t really care. We’re scoring goals from set-pieces and that’s really good.”
Early days yet; Celtic set-piece strength will be tested at Ibrox
It’s difficult to put too much emphasis on how we’ve defended over the last 2 matches from dead-balls. After all, United only managed 1 corner throughout the 90 minutes last week [BBC]. County, meanwhile, did throw 5 corners into our penalty box, but they struggled to test Joe Hart [BBC].
The truth is that we bossed both of matches. There were no periods in the game where we had to defend deep and survive any sort of sustained build-up of set-piece pressure. Whilst it’s good to see we didn’t concede any chances against County, we’ll be tested a lot more against Rangers.
You have to imagine we’ll come under the cosh in stages at Ibrox. This will likely lead to a host of corner kicks and free-kicks around our penalty box. If we can show some real solidity in those moments then that says a lot more about any improvements we’ve made.
Granted, you can’t argue we’re more of a threat now in the opposition penalty area. We’re winning a lot more first-balls when attacking corners in particular. A big part of this has been Starfelt himself. But the likes of Giorgos Giakoumakis and Cameron Carter-Vickers have also been extremely threatening.
It’s 2 totally different areas however. Just because we’re making more progress in the final third doesn’t mean improvements have been made when defending them. The signs against Dundee United and County were promising, but it’s early days.
All eyes on how we cope against Rangers in 2 weeks. That, after all, will be the real acid test.
In other news, Celtic boss has worked wonders with Greg Taylor; 2022 form deserves more credit
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