Justice for Scales – Why Celtic supporters need to get off Liam’s back

It would be fair to say that Liam Scales has been one of our most improved players this campaign. The Irishman has shown great character to become a first team regular, when it looked like he would be surplus to requirements last summer and heading to Aberdeen. Barry Robson was very keen to sign Scales and it was only uncertainties caused by injuries that kept the Irishman at Celtic as a back-up.

Yet he’s become one of the first names on the team sheet under Brendan Rodgers and he was just recently named in the SPFL team of the year alongside his central defensive partner Cameron Carter Vickers.

That hasn’t stopped Liam from receiving his fair share of criticism recently, as he’s now seen as the whipping boy by a section of our support. The section that love to get their grip on a certain player and not let him go until they suck all the confidence out of them, yes that section, the same ones who were desperate to see the back of Carl Starfelt.

A recent set of stats on an individual player from the game at Dens on Sunday made for some interesting reading. The player won 10 duels and had an 86% passing accuracy. That is superb stats and they refer to that man Liam Scales.

That still hasn’t stopped the flak heading Liam’s way. He is now the number one whipping boy amongst that over critical element of our support, mostly making their opinions heard on social media.

Yes Liam has his faults, and for me in the longer term he will be a squad player. It is clear that Celtic do need a better quality of defender if we want to move forward next season and hold our own in European competition. However the criticism Scales receives is unjust, unfair and unhelpful to the Celtic cause.

The critics always like to highlight his faults, but ignore the good things he does in games. That’s unfair as If you were to watch the likes of Virgil Van Djik or John Stones closely for an entire 90 minutes you would notice more than a few erratic passes or other flaws in their game.

Even our defensive leader Cameron Carter-Vickers has had a few shaky moments recently, most notably in the dramatic Hampden semi final victory over Aberdeen, but yet again it was Liam who was made out to be the fall guy.

Liam is not the best central defender in the world but he isn’t the worst either. The lad is giving his all, and doing a steady job. The criticism he is receiving is totally unwarranted and should end now as we only need positive noises about Celtic until the season is over and the trophies are handed out.