Confident Welsh Asserts His Claim
With the arrival of Moritz Jenz, the future of Stephen Welsh may have seemed a little uncertain. Rumours of reasonable money bids from European sides also added to the uncertainty.
An injury to Carl Starfelt and a solid preseason run next to Cameron Carter-Vickers has seen the young Scot take a starting position in the league opener against Aberdeen.
Welsh did not waste the opportunity.
Not only did he open the teams’ account for the season with a 3rd minute header, he contributed as the main ball distributor throughout the match.
His 106 completed passes were 30 more than the next highest. But, crucially, 24 of them were Pack Passes that were forward and took opponents out the game.
He defended solidly too after losing the initial header to Bojan Miovski. After that, he was largely faultless bar one turnover that put Aberdeen in a promising breakaway situation.
Welsh was the primary carrier of the ball out from the back. He completed 6 progressive runs (running forward with the ball (the anti-Jack Grealish) for at least 10 yards in the opposition half). Admittedly, this was mainly not at great pace. He wasn’t galloping forward with the wide legged voracity of a Kristopher Ajer. But this is probably a new development for him.
The non-data assessment I took was he looked confident. The manager has placed trust in him as the season starter ahead of Jenz and Chris Jullien. He seemed to exude belief in taking the extra responsibility I have outlined above.
Early days of course. But I will suggest now that if he continues with this form Starfelt will have to await his chance to get back into the team.
Who’d have thought that at the end of last season?