Celtic’s imperious form continued on Saturday, smashing Hibernian 3-0 in Glasgow, with Arne Engels breaking the deadlock inside six minutes, while Kyogo Furuhashi was also on target later on with this balletic first-touch and then an impudent dink over goalkeeper Jordan Smith.
This leaves the Hoops nine points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership, having accumulated 43 points out of a possible 45, also overwhelming favourites to beat Rangers in Sunday’s League Cup Final at Hampden.
Brendan Rodgers’ side have also, for the most part, performed well in the Champions League, collecting nine points from six fixtures and losing only once.
Thus, with a pivotal Champions League tie followed by an Old Firm cup final, weeks do not come much bigger than this for the Celts.
Centre-back: so often Celtic's problem position
Since reaching the 2003 UEFA Cup Final, Celtic have largely disappointed in Europe, no matter what competition they’ve featured in.
It’s now over 20 years since the Hoops most recently won a knockout phase tie on the continent, defeating Barcelona in the UEFA Cup fourth round all the way back in March 2004, dumped out from all nine subsequently.
So dominant domestically, Celtic’s centre-backs were routinely getting exposed and found out at European level, with names such as Jozo Šimunović, Cha Du-Ri and Shane Duffy enough to send a shudder down the spine of any supporter.
There have, however, been a few good centre-backs too, none more so than Virgil van Dijk.
We wrote about van Dijk’s Celtic career last week, underlining how effortlessly outstanding he was, leaving a rather large void for all who follow to fill.
Well, since his arrival in Glasgow, Cameron Carter-Vickers has been the Celts’ undisputed stalwart at the back, perhaps not quite as good as van Dijk, but he’s certainly right up there in terms of modern-day great defenders.
Appearances
131
Scottish Premiership appearances
97
Scottish Premiership win %
86%
Scottish Premiership defeats
3
European appearances
18
European wins
4
European clean sheets
2
Trophies
7
Since moving from Tottenham, initially on loan, before joining permanently for £6m, the United States international has been a Celtic stalwart, a fundamental figure in their success, initially under Ange Postecoglou and now with Brendan Rodgers back at the helm.
However, Carter-Vickers is somewhat injury-prone, missing 45 matches across all competitions, which equates to 25.7% of fixtures, since his debut, most notably requiring knee surgery in April 2023, soldiering through the pain before going under the knife the morning after victory over Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-finals.
As a result, his various central defensive colleagues have had to come to the fore, either alongside or deputising for the Southend-on-Sea-born American international, with one in particular doing just that.
Liam Scales: proving doubters wrong
When Liam Scales arrived at Celtic in August 2021 from Shamrock Rovers for a fee of £500k, this brought about little fanfare.
After making just 13 appearances during his first season, all coming as a left-back it’s worth noting, Scales spent the 2022/23 campaign on loan at Aberdeen.
In the North East, Scales impressed, playing in 39 of the 42 fixtures for which he was eligible, helping the Dons to a third-place finish, endearing himself to the Celtic support by scoring a long-range, if somewhat wind-assisted, strike against Ranges during a 2-0 victory at Pittodrie.
The following season, now back in Glasgow, while Gustaf Lagerbielke and Maik Nawrocki both struggling for fitness, Scales established himself as Carters-Vickers’ undisputed first-choice partner at the back.
He started all six Champions League group stage games last term, as well as the first three league phase fixtures this year, earning international recognition for the first time in October 2023, before starting each of Republic of Ireland’s last four UEFA Nations League fixtures this autumn.
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As noted by Matthew Lindsay of The Herald, Brendan Rodgers described the Irish defender as “absolutely pivotal”, following his team’s 5-1 demolition of Slovan Bratislava in September, claiming he does not get the credit he deserves.
Transfermarkt now believes Scales’ transfer value is at an all-time high, approximating that the Irishman is worth, €4m, around £3.3m, close to seven times what the Bhoys paid for his services three and a half years ago.
So how do Scales and Carter-Vickers compare?
Appearances
66
45
Minutes played
5,626
3,498
Passes per 90 minutes
78.9
91.3
Pass completion %
90.2%
93.2%
Touches per 90
98.4
105.4
Aerial duels won
72.1%
67.7%
Tackle success %
68.8%
75%
Points-per-game
2.14
2.30
As outlined above, Scales has played significantly more minutes than Carter-Vickers since the start of last season, with the pair’s per 90 statistics largely comparable, which is a massive compliment to the Irishman, considering how rock-solid his partner has been.
The fact Scales is left-footed means the duo complement each other well and, despite the arrival of Auston Trusty, who has been eating up some minutes, this is clearly Celtic’s best partnership, with Scales’ stock only set to rise.
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