Celtic fans have been praising yesterday’s unsung hero Kristoffer Ajer on social media.
Not many initially mentioned Ajer, and he certainly didn’t take the spotlight on the day against Hearts. That belonged to Odsonne Edouard for his stunning brace against the Jambos that sealed the treble treble.
Ryan Edwards scored from Hearts’ only real chance of the game, and why was Celtic’s defensive door slammed shut? It was, of course, down to Norwegian Ajer.
The big defender snuffed out any threat from Steven MacLean, and was always looking to make his charging runs. Even when Uche Ikpeazu came on for the closing moments, both Ajer and Jozo Simunovic kept him quiet. And reacting to Ajer’s stunning display once again yesterday, the Hoops fans have come out in force on social media.
https://twitter.com/caitlinmcg67/status/1132589190439424001
https://twitter.com/swiggzy90/status/1132366624168775680
https://twitter.com/derekscott1990/status/1132434312350056448
https://twitter.com/Plac1dCasual/status/1132633370989670400
Award decisions looking more and more like a joke
As we all know by now, Ajer was overlooked for contention in both the PFA Player of the Year awards and SFWA Player of the Year awards. The likes of Jake Hastie, David Turnbull, and Lewis Ferguson were all in the mix. Whilst nobody can argue with those in contention, Ajer at least deserved a mention.
His form at Parkhead has been incredible when you think of the journey he’s been on. He was effectively viewed as not good enough back in January 2017 when he was shipped out to Kilmarnock. 17 first-team appearances later and he was breaking into the Celtic squad within a year.
Since then, Ajer’s form has been sensational. Despite being paired with numerous different partners this season, he still has an incredible 28 clean sheets to his name in 45 outings for Celtic.
He started 2018 as one of the lower-ranked defenders at the club. Now? It’s debatable that he’s currently Celtic’s number one centre-back, with Dedryck Boyata leaving the club for Hertha Berlin.
His display against Hearts yesterday was hardly surprising. That’s just what Ajer does – he’s dominant in this country, and is far too good for the opposition we come up against.
He perhaps could’ve done better for Hearts’ goal, but it was one blip. Overall, he bullied Hearts’ forward players around the place, and continues to increase his reputation with each game.
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