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.
He’s 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.
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 it was the very stats of that man Liam Scales.
That still hasn’t stopped the flak heading Liam’s way. He is now the number one whipping boy amongst the over critical element of our support.
Yes Liam has his faults, and for me he is no more than a squad player, and we need a better quality of defender if we want to move forward next season, but the criticism he receives is unjust and unfair.
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 very own 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 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.
A bhoys blog 