Ajer returned to the side after a bad facial injury and was pitched into right back against the hugely talented FC Salzburg. Part of the makeshift arrangement against Hibernian, he returned to the bench versus Motherwell.
Seemingly a target for the critics, the 20-year-old continues to learn new defensive positions in amongst the constantly shifting personnel of the Celtic back line. Being pitched in at right back to face the exciting captain Uhlmer was a tough reintroduction.
The chart below plots, for the defensive and midfield players, two key defensive metrics.
Firstly, Defensive Action Success Rate is an overall indicator of defensive effectiveness across challenges, interceptions and fouls.
Possession W/L % indicates how effectively a player manages to secure possession for his side through defensive actions but not including passing.
Taken together this provides an overall plot of defensive effectiveness.
There is not a lot between Celtic’s four primary centre backs, and Hendry lags quite far behind that peer group.
Ajer and Benkovic are slightly ahead of the other two as regards ability to win challenges and not lose them. Simunovic and Boyata are slightly ahead on maintaining possession. They both tend to play a simpler game than Ajer and Benkovic who are given license to break forward and take more risks with their passing.
But the primary motivation for showing this was to reinforce that Ajer, as the youngest of the group, and the least experienced in that position, remains an excellent prospect.
Ajer may lack the glamour of the English Premier League and £13 million price tag of Benkovic, but his performances are on a par defensively.
Ajer is very much the complete player. His movement up the park with the ball at his feet adds another attacking dimension from the back. I believe he is very much underrated.
Thanks for all the work to provide the info for us mere fans!