Chris Sutton has been explaining what he thinks will be the most important factor in determining the result of the Glasgow Derby this Sunday.
In his opinion piece in Daily Record, Chris states that although Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt have been rocks in Celtic’s bid for the Premiership title, he still has his doubts about the pair, suggesting that as a defensive unit Celtic are still weak when it comes to defending cross balls and set pieces.
Sutton said: “Carter-Vickers and Starfelt have really grown as a partnership through the season and that is understandable given these relationships need time to bed. Both players need to know what the other one is going to do. Who is going to attack the ball? Who drops off? Who follows a striker out? Who covers when?
“But I have to confess, I still have doubts about Celtic defensively over cross balls and I’m not sure they are completely solid at set pieces. And, as was shown in the last game between the teams at Ibrox way back at the beginning of the season, those situations can be pivotal.
“Celtic were the best team in that game for the entire first half and had chances to go in front. But Rangers ended up winning because their visitors could not deal with a bread-and-butter corner kick after the break and Filip Helander headed the game’s only goal.
“It is a weapon Rangers use well. They have talent to unlock defences in open play, but their threat from set-plays is obvious with the delivery of James Tavernier and the heading ability of the likes of Helander, Leon Balogun and Connor Goldson.
“Rangers barely got into the Celtic half to get a free-kick or a corner in the last game before it was 3-0 and already finished, but that will not be the case this time as they will be at it from the start on their own soil. Carter-Vickers and Starfelt are going to have to dominate those situations when they, inevitably, arise at various stages”.
The former Celtic striker makes a lot of valid points here. Celtic have an incredible defensive record in the Cinch Premiership this season, the best in the league by some distance having only conceded 18 goals in 31 games. However most fans, including myself, still get the fear when we concede corners or free kicks in our own half as most of the goals against us seem to come from these set play situations.
Alongside our apparent weakness in this area is the fact that our opposition on Sunday are a team who score a huge amount of goals from set pieces, and I’m not even including the ridiculous amount of goals they get from penalties in that. Sutton mentions the first meeting between the sides at the start of the season. Even though it was clear the Celtic players were still in the midst of getting to know each other at the time, I thought we were still the better team that day, we certainly didn’t deserve to lose anyway.
It was bad defending from a corner that day that saw us undone, and to be quite honest we haven’t really rectified that problem since. Many will point to the fact this is hard to do when the vast majority of our team aren’t blessed with height but it was Carl Starfelt who Helander beat in the air that day, and there isn’t too much of a height discrepancy between the pair, Helander just attacked the ball better.
It is definitely an area we should have been focusing on at training this week because my own personal opinion is that it will be the best avenue they have to score against us. If we defend these situations well and the game comes down to who the better team is from open play I have absolutely no doubt we are capable of taking all 3 points at Ibrox.
As I said earlier, we didn’t deserve to lose the last game at Ibrox and had plenty of clear chances to score, Edouard’s sitter and Kyogo shooting when he could have squared to a teammate for a tap in both come to mind, but this was only a few months into Ange’s revolution. We are a far better side now than we were then so Sundays encounter should hold absolutely no fear for this Celtic team.
We are the better team, of that I have no doubt. If we remain solid at the back we have the attacking talent that can absolutely bury them. Sutton is right, Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers do have a hugely important job on their hands on Sunday. If they do their part I can only see one outcome at Ibrox.
Conall McGinty
