Life at Celtic hasn’t been easy for Ange Postecoglou who has overseen the Hoops’ worst start to a campaign at Parkhead for 23 years.
The Bhoys are already significantly far behind in their chase of the league title and fans are running out of patience again with the board.
What’s the word?
Celtic signed as many as 12 first-team players throughout the summer but despite the club’s mass upheaval of playing staff, they are still struggling.
The likes of Ryan Christie, Odsonne Edouard and Kristoffer Ajer have all left but replacements like Kyogo Furuhashi and Giorgos Giakoumakis have suffered some early injury blows.
Celtic are stretched up front but they also lack options at left-back where Greg Taylor is currently injured himself.
With that in mind, The Daily Record's Mark Pirie has suggested that Celtic scour the free agent market in a bid to find solutions.
One player he revealed that Postecoglou could chase is former Aston Villa defender Neil Taylor.
The 43-cap Wales international is currently without a club so can be signed for absolutely nothing.
Fixing a problem
Issues appear to be mounting for the new management team at Paradise but one of their chief problems is in defence.
One of the biggest problems that Postecoglou needed to fix was in the backline after their woeful season defensively in 2020/21.
They conceded 14 more goals than Rangers in the Premiership and were also the Europa’s League worst side at the back, shipping 19 strikes.
This term hasn’t started much better with four goals conceded in their opening Europa League clash.
Yet, they won’t be able to fix any of their issues before they address the left-back area.
With Diego Laxalt at the club last season, that role was already beginning to become an issue in terms of consistency.
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They didn’t sign a replacement and it has come back to bite them in the early months of the season.
Taylor will now miss 12 matches after successful shoulder surgery which has meant Josip Juranovic playing out of position, Boli Bolingoli being recalled and teenager Adam Montgomery earning an early senior breakthrough.
Montgomery has plenty of potential but none of those solutions are sustainable.
One short-term remedy is Neil Taylor. The full-back is now 32 years of age but he has plenty of experience in the Premier League and he’s starred at major international tournaments.
He was a crucial cog in the Wales team when they made the semi-finals of Euro 2016 but he’s never been able to replicate that form.
Like his namesake, he is excellent going forward. In the words of his former manager, Dean Saunders, he is “lightning-quick.”
His pace has waned slightly since those comments were made but it shows that Taylor possesses the ability to make recovering runs and to gallop forward down the left.
Most important is his tackle rate. During the 2019/20 season, he won 1.4 per game while in 2016/17, he was even better at 2.2 per match. That second statistic is ahead of Celtic’s current option who averages 1.7 throughout his career.
Taylor is now an older figurehead but a short-term deal could be the answer to Postecoglou’s woes at left-back.