Celtic legend Jackie McNamara has recently backed the club’s left-back Greg Taylor to succeed at Parkhead.
McNamara recently appeared as a guest during the latest video on the 67 Hail Hail YouTube channel and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. One topic of discussion was the club’s left-back spot and McNamara backed Taylor to play ahead of Milan loanee Diego Laxalt. The club legend believes that Taylor is better than Laxalt while attacking and while defending.
Is Taylor better than Laxalt?
Yes
No
Taylor joined Celtic from Kilmarnock in the summer of 2019. While summer arrival Laxalt had nailed down a starting place earlier in the season, Taylor has now come back into the club’s first-team fold and featured against his former club in midweek. The Scotsman is currently valued at £1.35m.
McNamara had a lot of praise for Taylor and believes that the Scotsman is a better all-round player.
He said: “To be honest, I thought he should’ve been there most of the season. When he came in, he got left out for the Rangers game. I know he’s not every Celtic fan’s cup of tea. But you look at his stats, you look at his numbers. He’s got more assists than Laxalt; defensively, I think he’s better as well – he knows where to be. Laxalt sometimes looks to me like he’s energetic and stuff, I don’t see the defensive quality. I think Greg’s a better all-round player. I think Greg’s suffered from the lack of width in front of him or creativity – somebody to link with.”
TIF Thoughts on McNamara’s comments on Taylor…
23-year-old Taylor has made 21 appearances in all competitions this season and has directly contributed to six goals for the Bhoys. He already has four assists in the Premiership; only Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie have picked up more than the Scotsman this season (as per WhoScored).
Laxalt has found the net once this season, but is yet to register a single assist for the Bhoys. Meanwhile, Taylor has played 1.6 key passes per game this season, which is far greater than Laxalt’s tally of 0.3 so far. Because of these statistics, it is easy to see why Taylor is playing more often these days, and perhaps why McNamara is keen to rally behind the full-back.