Ange Postecoglou believes that the pairing of Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers is growing as a central defensive partnership.
The summer signings have played six matches on the bounce with clean sheets recorded in the wins over Aberdeen and Ferencvaros.
Postecoglou’s system is very much geared towards attacking, with two full-backs that push forward at every opportunity it can leave the central defenders looking exposed.
Shane Duffy, Kris Ajer, Nir Bitton, Stephen Welsh and Chris Jullien all had stints in central defence last season with Postecoglou a great believer in letting a partnership develop.
The Celtic boss told the Daily Record:
I felt for Carl because we threw him in. He had different centre-back partners in the early stages and he was new to the club himself. People were kind of judging him on what they saw but I knew there was more in him and I still think there’s more again.
We signed Cam (Carter-Vickers) on deadline day then virtually threw him into the first team but he is a really calm character and mature beyond his years.
Even though he’s fairly young he’s settled into the club really well and the key thing for the two of them is they want to learn, they want to improve. Every week they are sitting down with the coaches and doing the analysis and they are getting confidence from that.
The way we play is not easy for any centre-backs. We ask a lot of them. We ask them to be playing out from the back then to squeeze up and be aggressive with our defending.
It’s a lot easier to be playing centre-back in other teams, I can guarantee you. But they’ve tackled it and we know there’s more to come from both of them. Joe’s experience helps.
We’ve shown faith in them and I’ve said to them all along if something happens out on the pitch and it doesn’t work out then I’m accountable for it, not them.
Welsh and Dane Murray played in central defence away to Midtjylland with Starfelt teamed up with Bitton for his debut in the 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle.
Carter-Vickers has been able to get a breather during international breaks but Starfelt has been away with the Swedish squad without getting game time.
Jullien is likely to become available at some stage next month but after a 10 month absence Postecoglou will be mindful of how he integrates the Frenchman into a new look side.
