Celtic defender Carl Starfelt has made the SPFL Team of the Week after his display against St Johnstone.
Starfelt, somewhat unfairly derided in the early stages of his time at Celtic, was colossal against the Saints on Saturday. Chris Kane barely had a sniff of the ball for the entire afternoon, nor did St Johnstone have any real opportunities at Celtic Park.
Given a rating of 8.4 by Fotmob, the Sweden international won a ridiculous 16 duels and won 11 aerial battles. If St Johnstone had designs of beating Celtic in the air, it just wasn’t going to happen.
The Swedish defender has been somewhat pilloried since his move to Celtic. Mistakes against Hearts and AZ Alkmaar removed a fair amount of context. Here was a defender in a completely new league, speaking a different language, and playing in an unfamiliar system.
Not only that, the system demands so much of the centre-backs. Luckily, Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers have combined to very decent effect. Three clean sheets in a row, against Motherwell, Ferencvaros and St Johnstone, are testament to that.
The SPFL said of Starfelt’s performance:
“The summer signing is starting to come on to a game after a tough introduction to his Celtic career and was one of the stand-outs as Ange Postecoglou’s men kept up their recent winning streak with a 2-0 home victory over St Johnstone.”
Can we drop the “flop” narrative around Celtic man Carl Starfelt now?
It was always going to take adjustment. We’ve seen plenty of players take their time to adapt to Ange Postecoglou’s tactical ambition. It’ll suit some players more than others, but the manager will have brought in players he knew would do well.
That includes Carl Starfelt. Happily, the manager has shown faith in his recruit, and it’s starting to pay off.
The manager has said he had to throw Starfelt into the mix [Scotsman], without sufficient time to train and get to know his teammates. Such was the desperation for centre-backs at the time, and the mess Postecoglou inherited at Celtic Park.
Yet, Starfelt has been under heavy fire from pundits. It feels faintly ridiculous, especially from former pros who would’ve themselves needed time to adjust to new surroundings in their careers. Yes, you, Charlie Nicholas.
Defenders are going to take more flak when things go wrong, that’s the nature of the game. But Starfelt has quickly gone from a figure of fun to a star player in the SPFL.
Read more: Ange Postecoglou brilliantly defends Celtic backline from out-of-date narrative
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