Ange Postecoglou has praised the attributes of stand-in skipper Cameron Carter-Vickers as Callum McGregor remains sidelined with injury. The manager also spoke about why he decided to hand the captain’s armband to the USA Internationalist over Joe Hart. Hart, Josip Juranovic and Greg Taylor have been viewed as leadership figures within the team but it was the defender that wore the armband last weekend and on Tuesday night.
When asked how he feels that Carter-Vickers is handling the on-field captaincy after the defender said himself he is maybe not the most vocal, Postecoglou told the media conference that he was pleased with the influence that he has had on the team since assuming the role.
“Absolutely. It is the reason I put him in there. When you lose somebody as influential as Callum McGregor, you are not going to fill that breach with someone who is a carbon copy of him.
“It was really important that we had some stability and I’ve already got guys like Joe Hart and players like Greg Taylor who is a quiet bloke in the dressing room and Josip Juranovic but I just felt we needed a different type of leader also.
“With Cameron, when he is out there, the lads do see him as a leader in the way he plays and the way he goes about his business. It was a balancing act in terms of what type of leadership we needed during Callum’s absence. I just felt that with Joe and a couple of others providing the vocal aspect that having Cameron in there would help us and I think he has done well.”
