Journalist David Walton has recently criticised the performance of Hatem Abd Elhamed in Celtic’s recent 2-1 win over St. Mirren.
Walton was a guest on the latest video of the 67HailHail YouTube channel. The panel discussed many issues from the club’s 2-1 win over St. Mirren in the Premiership recently. While talking about the game, Walton discussed the performance of Elhamed and he wasn’t impressed with the Israeli defender on Wednesday.
Elhamed, who is valued at £653k, had started the game at centre-back. The Hoops went 1-0 down early on in the game, but they fought back soon enough as Shane Duffy scored once and James Forrest put them 2-1 up as well (as per WhoScored).
Walton believes that the Israeli defender was ‘slow’ against St. Mirren, who were getting ‘a bit of joy out of him’ in the game.
He said: “There was something just off about him tonight. I’ve been one of his biggest cheerleaders, I’ve really liked him since he signed. [There was] something about him tonight, though – I thought he looked quite slow, especially at the start of the game. I thought he was beaten off easily. I think St. Mirren were getting a bit of joy out of him.
“I don’t know if you remember, his pass at [some point] in the first half – he gave it straight to him. A better team, particularly in Europe, for example, would have punished you for that.”
Should Elhamed play regularly for Celtic?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
The game on Wednesday was Elhamed’s second start in the Premiership this season, having come on as a substitute in the first two games of the league campaign. He had started the club’s games in the UEFA Champions League qualifying stages as well.
The 29-year-old picked up a 7.06 rating against St. Mirren and only five Celtic players picked up better ratings than him in the game. It shows that the performance wasn’t too bad and the defender gave a good account of himself on Wednesday. Criticising him might be a bit unfair.