Stephen Welsh is one of the first names that Ange Postecoglou will add to his Celtic team sheets and is perhaps the main reason that there is little or no clamour for a big money transfer move for another centre defender as his partnership with Swedish International Carl Starfelt begins to gel. And Welsh has gone from last season’s Academy rookie to a mainstay and a leader at the back for the side.
Looking at the players in front of him after the latest 6-0 win – this time over St Mirren – Welsh reflected on the astonishing firepower that this Celtic side has at its disposal and started with Saturday Man of the Match David Turnbull who achieved a career first hat-trick against the Buddies.
“David is brilliant. He shows his quality every week. He’s still young as well – only a year older than me – so he’s got a long way to go,” Welsh told the Mainstream media after the match, as reported by Daily Record. “Every time he gets on the ball you expect something to happen. It’s the same with all the forward players – Tom, Kyogo, Liel, Odsonne, everyone.
“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.”
After a few early season disappointments, as the squad was still coming together and also coming to terms with the way that Postecoglou was telling them to play, this teething troubles seem to be over now and the players are already comfortable with this Ange Ball supersonic football.
“It’s probably just getting used to the way we were playing,” Welsh admitted, reflecting on the early season woes.
“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,” the Scotland Under 21 international added.
Looking at the game at the weekend Welsh was pleased with every aspect of the 6-0 win. “It was a good performance again from the boys especially in the first half. I thought we really took he game to St Mirren. In the first 10 to 15 minutes we were all over them.
“The way that we are playing and the chances we are creating, it’s really positive for us. We got a clean sheet as well which on a personal note is good. That means as much as the goals we’re scoring. If we’re keeping them out then we know the boys are going to create chances and score goals at the other end.
“It gives them room to go and be creative, to try to create chances if we’re solid in defence at the back.The intensity was there right until the end. That’s what the gaffer said at half-time.
“Even though we were four goals up and they were a man down, he said that the next 45 minutes we had to keep up that intensity, show a level and show how good we were. I thought we did that. We could have scored more goals but winning 6-0, you’ll definitely take that.”
