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.
Third on the list is young James Forest. I don’t mind admitting that when he first came on to the scene, I agreed with someone who said that they were not convinced by him and that they didn’t think he was good enough for Celtic. So hats off to James for proving me wrong. Recently, he was voted as one of the top young talents on the FIFA website so he’s been tipped for the top by the people at the top. Leaving the big wigs aside, we like football to be played “the Glasgow Celtic way” and the wee man is someone who is really able to provide us with that type of football. How great is it to be seeing a skillful wide player who can beat opponents, get to the byline and put in a cross? There has been more than one time this season when the team seems to be struggling, Forest seems to have an ability to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and turn the match on his own. Think of the Hibs match in the cup when he played a really good second half. Throughout the years, as far back as ‘Jinky’ we’ve always had some players who are a threat out wide and I think that’s why we like him so much. Another thing that impressed me about Forest was the game that the tabloids billed as a must win match v Motherwell. I felt that their players were lining up to take a turn each to kick him. Each time, he never reacted, but just got up and kept playing on. For a player so young, that was impressive. Most folk would have ended up reacting and ended up being sent off. I don’t think I could have taken that amount of a battering without reacting. Moving on to the end of the list is where it’s becoming more difficult. It’s really a choice (based on the replies I received) between Charlie Mulgrew, Anthony Stokes, Gary Hooper, Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews. For the final two, I’ve gone for Mulgrew and Hooper. I guess it’s tough to leave out Ledley and Stokes and some others out the top five but the main reason that I have chosen Hooper over Stokes is that I feel when not scoring goals that Hooper offers a wee bit more to the team. The ironic thing is that I wrote a piece before about how I felt Hooper wasn’t pulling his weight enough but I think he’s looking good just now. He is back to his best again, helping out in defence and that’s something that I’ve noticed more and more from him recently. He seems to be willing to get back and defend and help out when the team needs him. His goal scoring and assists may not be any better than Stokes so if I am allowed to cheat on this and make both of them joint players, I will do that. Even earlier in his career at Celtic, I felt as if Hooper was sometimes caught offside way too often but that’s an important part of his game that he seems to be improving on. The fifth and final player is Mulgrew. Another one of our players who have a song about them, we all know that he’s our prodigal son and the fact that he (allegedly at least) hates the other team always helps. I’ve already written about players who I feel have good mental strength, I feel that Charlie is one of those. To be at the club as a kid, to then be told ‘sorry, you’re not good enough’ to then come back and perform as he has this season, proves that he’s obviously a strong character. Earlier this season, when his father passed away, he still came out and was able to play for us. How many other players would have been able to do that? Last season, when he came back, he was a player who we thought would be a squad player. Hats off to him for being able to block the negativity and have faith in his own ability and to be able to keep doing what he was doing and end up becoming a player who we can’t do without. We’ve been treated to a few good free kicks from Charlie and we know that he is always capable of putting in a cross or free kick to cause the opposition some hassle. Moving on to the job that he is there to do, he seems to be able to play in defence with any other players. We’ve saw him as part of a back line with more folk than most defenders would normally play with so that’s part of why I have chose Charlie. That’s the end of my top five list and I sincerely hope that all of these guys have the ultimate reward for what they’ve done so far this year and that’s end up with medals to take home with them. Let me know who your top players would be and why. The most difficult thing to do was leave out was Ledley but it’s important to remember that being a team game, the five I have listed have a lot to thank the rest of the squad for.  CLICK HERE for Lambert dismisses Rangers bid for Grant Holt CLICK HERE  for Butcher: It was like a training session for Celtic Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTubeÂ
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.