Former Celtic striker turned pundit, Frank McAvennie doesn’t believe Kristoffer Ajer is a top defender and he was disappointed the club didn’t bring in a centre-back in January.
Frank points to a few heart in mouth moments against Kilmarnock and believes Ajer is not the best defender for Stephen Welsh to learn under.
Celtic won 4-0 against Kilmarnock on Tuesday evening but there was a few scared as and the defensive analysis we put up after the game showed Ajer didn’t have a good game when it came to defending.
Eye vs Data: Celtic’s defensive issues.
Speaking about Welsh and Ajer, Frank would like to see Welsh get a run but with a more commanding partner.
“The two of them [Welsh and Ajer] look comfortable together but I am still not totally convinced by that back four. There was a couple of balls that came into the box and your heart is in your mouth. Killie could have got in’ McAvennie told Football Insider.
“Welsh did alright but he is not the big, commanding type I would like to see at centre-half.
“When you bring a young lad like that in you hope that Ajer will be talking to you and doing the organising but I do not think that happened… Welsh was talking to them, so he deserves credit for that.
“I would like to see him play alongside and be taught by top defenders, not Bitton or Ajer. I would like to see Welsh have a wee run of games with a top centre-half, so I am very disappointed that we did not get one in January.”
Verdict
From a vocal standpoint, I think Frank is wrong. If you regularly attended games before the fans were locked out or watch the players close enough, you’ll know Ajer can be very vocal.
He’s our best fit defender at the moment and we hope he can spark up a decent partnership with Welsh between now and the end of the season.
The Norwegian is likely to go at the end of this campaign, at which point, Celtic will have to massively restructure their defence.
