Celtic’s Scales verdict: has the most overlooked player become the most important?

Celtic’s Scales verdict offers a timely challenge to how we judge one of our most debated players.

As the BBC’s Scottish gossip round-up reports, Liam Scales has topped a CIES Football Observatory study examining the physical and tactical importance of centre-backs within their teams.

That deserves attention. However, it also deserves an accurate explanation.

This is a measure of a player’s importance within his team’s system. It does not establish that Scales is Europe’s best centre-half. Turning it into that claim would only distract from the more interesting question.

Have we become so accustomed to questioning his limitations that we overlook what Celtic ask him to contribute?

What Celtic’s Scales verdict really tells us

I find this study interesting because it shifts the discussion away from reputation and towards responsibility.

Supporters naturally want defenders who win their challenges, use the ball well and avoid costly mistakes. Those expectations are entirely reasonable.

Nevertheless, judging a player also means considering his role. How much responsibility does he carry? What does the team need from him? How effectively does he help the players around him?

The BBC’s report describes the study as measuring “the physical and tactical importance of centre-backs within their teams”.

That final part matters.

A player can be essential to his side without being the most accomplished footballer in his position. Equally, recognising his importance does not mean ignoring the areas where he can improve.

For me, that is a much more useful starting point than another argument about whether Scales is brilliant or hopeless.

A winning goal when Celtic needed one

There is also a straightforward example of his value.

Scales scored the only goal in Celtic’s win over Kilmarnock on November 8, converting Camilo Durán’s delivery. Sky Sports’ match report records a difficult afternoon that restored our four-point lead.

Martin O’Neill told Sky: “It was a tough game for us. Very, very tough.”

Celtic needed somebody to make the difference. On that occasion, the centre-half supplied the decisive finish.

Of course, one goal cannot settle the wider debate about his defending. Yet it belongs in any fair assessment of his contribution.

We rightly celebrated Durán’s match-winning double against Besiktas. Scales deserves recognition when his intervention secures three points too.

The glamour surrounding the scorer should never determine the value of the goal.

Recognition should still leave room for scrutiny

Our Besiktas comeback report highlighted the attacking quality that gave supporters renewed hope. However, Celtic also conceded twice that night.

We can appreciate individual contributions while demanding a more secure team.

Scales remains part of that scrutiny. His positioning, decision-making and passing should face the same honest assessment as everybody else’s.

But scrutiny works both ways.

If a mistake counts against him, a decisive contribution must count in his favour. Otherwise, we are defending an opinion rather than assessing a performance.

I would not use this study to declare him untouchable. I would use it to challenge the assumption that Celtic could remove him without losing anything significant.

Has our most overlooked player become our most important?

The research gives that question substance. My view is simpler: Scales has earned the right to a fairer hearing, and Celtic supporters should give him one.