Stephen Welsh has been left heavily impressed with the options the Celtic centre-backs have when playing out from the back under Ange Postecoglou.
One of the big criticisms of last season were the number of players who seemed to shirk responsibility. Too often when passing out from the defence under Neil Lennon would the Hoops carelessly give the ball away.
Whilst there are still slight concerns over Carl Starfelt’s slow start, Celtic have still looked a lot more efficient in their distribution from the back. This comes due to the fact there is plenty of movement going on when the centre-backs are on the ball. The full-backs and central midfielders are constantly looking to make themselves available, with Celtic at times appearing to be thinking several passes ahead.
And Welsh believes it’s a dream for the likes of himself to see so many options available to him when he looks for ways to move it forward.
As quoted by the Daily Record, Welsh said: “We’ve got players who can do good things . We know how good Liel is dribbling one-on-one. Tony Ralston down that side as well, they’ve got a good partnership going. It’s all about feeding the ball to them at the right time and letting them do the rest.
“It’s great when you look up and there are so many options. That’s what the gaffer wants – when the centre-halves are on the ball we need as many options as possible and we had countless on Saturday. The number of times I was on the ball and there were three or four passes on.
“It’s about making the right one. Most of the time I thought we made the right decisions and that’s what got us our goals [vs St Mirren]. It was very new. We’ve brought in new players as well who have now adapted to the system – like Liel, Kyogo and Carl Starfelt. We’ve got another couple in as well. They’ve adapted to the system that we want to play very well and I think it suits them – fast, high-paced intensity. It really suits the players we’ve brought in.”
Stephen Welsh highlights a key Celtic improvement on last season
When Celtic are making defensive mistakes this season, it’s coming from being caught high up the pitch. It’s coming from our defence not having enough protection due to the attacking style the manager is looking to implement.
Where mistakes aren’t coming from is in our distribution from the back. There were clear chinks in the armour in the last few weeks that needed sorting. That much was clear. But there were no mistakes in our distribution against St Mirren on Saturday.
Nor were there many if any against Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar last Wednesday either. For all of Celtic’s areas in which improvement is needed, there’s confidence growing when it comes to playing out from the back.
It will lead to errors from time to time. Especially with so many players getting used to a new system. But even this early you can see on the pitch just how Celtic are taking to it. It’s something they’re all buying into, especially at the back.
Last season, our distribution was all over the place. Scott Brown would drop deep to offer himself as an option, but that was it. There wasn’t the same movement or hunger from his teammates to make themselves available. It often led to careless errors when in possession.
Celtic already look a different animal and we’re not even one month into the new Premiership campaign. The improvements that will happen over a few months’ time will be even more exciting than what we’re seeing now.
In other news, Report: Celtic boss wants three more positions to be strengthened before window shuts
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