SPL Starting XI: Week 21

By: Ian Rose | January 6th, 2008

This week’s eleven includes the three mid-week matches and five Saturday games. Celtic and Motherwell skipped all matches this week, so they will be left out. There were some great performances in the meantime, and here are my starting eleven for week 21 in the SPL.

Goalkeeper: Langfield (Aberdeen)
Defenders: Hutton (Rangers), Ross (Falkirk), Berra (Hearts), Munro (Inverness CT)
Midfielders: Mason (St. Mirren), Arfield (Falkirk), Chisholm (Hibernian)
Strikers: Niculae (Inverness CT), Naismith (Rangers), Velicka (Hearts)

Rangers have played unimpressive football in the past month, but unlike Celtic, they have managed to turn that slump into a streak of skin-of-their-teeth wins, and they have made up ground to take back the top spot in the league. If any one player’s efforts have pushed them to those tight wins, it’s been Steven Naismith, and his opening goal against Dundee United, as well as his efforts the whole match, make him one of only two members of last week’s eleven to repeat. Alan Hutton also makes the list this week for Rangers. After turning down eight million quid from Spurs, he got back to his usual business at Ibrox Saturday, just barely hitting woodwork once and setting up Ferguson on a number of occasions.

The other returning player from last week’s eleven is Jamie Langfield. Aberdeen’s offense continues to stumble, and Dons have scored just three goals in the past four matches. But Langfield has allowed only one. This week’s two clean sheets and fifteen saves were more than enough for repeat honors, and his stop on Inverness’ Richard Hastings in the final minutes to preserve Dons’ 1-0 win was a marvel. Even an opposing fan like me had to respect it.

Inverness Caley Thistle fans (this one included) were losing a bit of faith in the abilities of Marius Niculae. The club’s all-time most expensive signing, Niculae came in with a roar of media attention, which quickly settled to a whimper. He started his SPL career with two goals in 19 matches, but the past two weeks have seen him finally show his quality. Four goals in two weeks, with braces against both Kilmarnock and Gretna, is more than enough to earn him a place on this list. He even gets partial credit for the third goal, a John Rankin penalty that he forced with a strong drive into the Gretna box. Grant Munro made impressive stops in both of Inverness’ matches this week, enough to earn his first starting eleven place.

St. Mirren played only once this week, the 2-1 win over Hibs on Saturday. The Hibees’ struggles continued as they managed only two shots on the Buddies’ goal, and conceded 55% of possession to a St. Mirren side that rarely gets that stat in their favor. Credit for the win goes in large part to Gary Mason, not just for his first-half goal (assisted by Hibs captain Rob Jones), but also his control and passing. The win moved the Buddies out of eleventh place and put a team between themselves and Gretna for the first time in months.

Another midfield spot is taken up by Falkirk’s Scott Arfield. After assisting on the Bairns’ only goal of their two matches this week, he continued to play some absolutely lovely balls down the pitch. Falkirk looks to be missing nothing more than another good striker to challenge the top six, and they may be playing the most attractive flowing football in Scotland right now, Old Firm included. On the defensive side of the ball, Falkirk, like Aberdeen, kept two clean sheets this week, but unlike Dons, who relied on Langfield for 15 saves, Falkirk needed their two keepers Krul and Olejnik to combine for only eleven. That means good defending, and no one was tighter at full-back than Jack Ross.

The way Hearts have been playing lately, a point was a relief on Saturday against Killie. Andrius Velicka scored a 63rd minute goal that saved not only a vital home point, but might just have started the road to recovery for the Jambos. A home loss to Killie, the seventh straight in the league, would have just deepened the fans’ and players’ pain, and Velicka’s poke gave them both something to cheer about, if only for a short time. Ridiculously young captain Christophe Berra set up that goal and scored one on United earlier in the week, and these two players, seemingly the only two starters not red-carded in the past two matches, could be the key to a Hearts resurgence.

Across town at Easter Road, the green side of Edinburgh isn’t having the best of times either. Hibs haven’t won since early November, and are on a streak of three straight heart-breaking one-point losses. Midfielder Ross Chisholm at least did his part on Saturday, setting up the only Hibs goal and making a few good efforts at goal. Admittedly, given the quality of both Celtic’s and Motherwell’s midfields, his performance might not have made this list in a full week, but when you’ve gone almost two months without a win, any bright spot is worth holding on to.

Category: Starting XI

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