Celtic-minded pundit Alan Stubbs has unfairly claimed that centre-back Carl Starfelt “hasn’t progressed” at Parkhead this season.
It’s been an up-and-down campaign for the Swedish international after his summer arrival from Rubin Kazan. Celtic splashed out as much as £4m for the player to lure him from Russia [Scottish Sun]. Due to that, many expected big things from Carl from the off.
It took the Swede an initial bedding-in period before settling alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers, who took to his role flawlessly almost immediately after his arrival on transfer deadline day. However, despite a run of good form between September and December, it appears as though a few errors have again affected Starfelt’s reputation.
Starfelt struggled badly in the Premier Sports Cup final win over Hibernian. And Stubbs has clearly used that to form his opinion as he had a pop at his lack of progress this term.
As quoted by Football Scotland, Alan said: “I had high hopes for Carl when he arrived from Rubin Kazan. He’d been capped by Sweden and had played in Russia so you cut him a bit of slack at first. Unfortunately, he hasn’t progressed. Cameron Carter-Vickers has come in beside him and, even though he’s younger and much less experienced, he’s done well and now looks like the senior partner.
“It is disappointing for Carl because it just hasn’t happened for him. Scottish football can take a lot of getting used to but how long do you wait for him? The game up here caught me out at first. It wasn’t until Marc Rieper and a few others were signed that I was able to relax and focus on my own game.”
Carl Starfelt has had more positive Celtic performances than many realise
Whisper it quietly, but 13 of Starfelt’s 26 appearances have ended in clean sheets. 19 of those 26 have ended in victories [Transfermarkt]. Say what you want about his performances, but he’s still regularly been a part of a winning team.
Did he struggle in his last couple of games in 2021? Absolutely. It looked as though he was back to being careless with the ball and it nearly cost us in the final vs Hibs. However, let’s not pretend that it’s been 6 months of sheer stagnation from the player.
Remember when Starfelt arrived? He was getting battered all over the place for his displays. He was poor with the ball at his feet and lost far too many aerial duels. For a centre-back, he certainly wasn’t commanding and looked much the inferior of the pair formed between him and Carter-Vickers.
However, he went through a good solid 4 months of genuine progress. He was a rock at Ibrox in the first Glasgow derby of the campaign, keeping Alfredo Morelos next to silent all game. Teams in Scotland haven’t scored more than 1 goal in a game against Celtic since Hearts at the start of the season. Another sign of the consistency he’s showed.
Yes, he struggled to adapt initially. It’s clearly been a bigger change than both he and the manager would’ve liked. But he’s certainly made progress and you can see him growing more and more into Scottish football and its many challenges.
With just a day to go before the Premiership action begins, we don’t need pile-ons or criticism being launched at individuals likely to be part of our XI. Hopefully, Starfelt can get back on the horse and start 2022 off strongly. He’s been nowhere as bad as some have made out.
In other news, Watch Celtic loanee Ross Doohan’s superb reaction save; 6 clean sheets in 7 EFL games
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
