Selecting the five most important players of the season SO FAR is no easy task as last week’s article by Paul Morgan and the poll with that article proved.
Like Neil Lennon picking his starting XI game by game there will be as many arguments about who is in as there are about the players out.
Everyone has their favourites, even managers, and no manager has ever picked a team that had all supporters nodding in agreement.
Since writing on this site, I’ve written about some of the best and worst players to have worn the hoops. This time round, I’m going with a piece on the five top players of the season so far.
Instead of just writing about who I thought my top five have been, I contacted my Celtic supporting mates and asked for their five top players, so if you disagree with what I am writing, then feel free to give as much grief to my mates as you like!
It’s widely accepted that a successful football team has a good solid spine so it’s appropriate that big Fraser Forster is the first player that I am writing about.
Last season, I wasn’t particularly worried about the thought of playing this season without him. I felt that Lucasz Zaluska would be a competent enough first choice. He seemed a bit uncomfortable at times, seemed to loose some silly goals and my biggest problem with him was his lack of communication with his defence. An online piece described him as being like a stoned giraffe and as much as it did seem a bit harsh, I could see where the writer was coming from.
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Fast forward on to this season and Forster seems like a different ‘keeper. Any team challenging for honours needs to have a keeper who can win the team some points and the big man has certainly done that this season. Is it a confidence thing with him ? I’ve no idea but the fact is that his save late on v Dundee Utd in the recent 2-1 win was probably the difference between us getting three points instead of one.
Of course, that’s just one and there will plenty of other examples.
Number two on the list for me is Victor Wanyama, he’s only been here for a few months and has a song about him already. I always think that any team who want to win anything should have goals from all over the pitch so when we have a guy who is primarily a defensive player, but can chip in with some goals then we are doing well with him. On top of a few goals, he is very good at tackling without conceding fouls and he seems to know when to stay on his feet and when to go to ground.
He can play at centre half as well as his preferred midfield position, doesn’t waste a lot of the ball and seems to always be playing with his head up and looking for a team mate instead of just punting the ball up the pitch like so many defensive players can be guilty of doing.
With some players, you take to them straight away and Wanyama was one of those. After seeing his debut, I decided that I liked him and that he’d be a good player for us. Can we keep a hold of him or will he be swayed by the bright lights and big bucks of the Premiership ? Maybe, but for just now, I feel he deserves a mention.
Why is Scott Brown,Beram Kayal or Ki not among the choices of your poll? The better Scott plays, the more consistent Celtic is and his all round improvement coincides with our unbeaten run!
as i have said in an earlier post, brown has missed a large chunk of the season so far, kayal only started to properly play after the killie game and ki doesnt do very much!! only kayal could maybe be considered. i think brown has only played about half of our unbeaten run as well, yes he has been immense the past month but before then he was average.