Stephen Welsh

Not for me his positional sense is poor move on get better in

 

Was probably our best player last season. Didn't take much but he was good.

Edit, season before this.

 

Absolutely.

 

Positional sense is to do with experience, he’s got plenty in his locker and showed his quality in a lot of his playing time last season.

 

Welsh was absolutely class against Belgium U21s on Sunday. Played a big part in getting that clean sheet. All credit to him.

 

Never going to be good enough to be first choice. Won’t even make it as a squad player if we start living up to our potential as a club.


With Murray’s injury he’ll probably need kept for the homegrown quota now though. Ideally Murray is back sooner than suggested and we still have that 3.5m from Udinese on the table for Welsh.

 

Hes soft for a centre back he's not good enough get better in.livi last year when we got beat he fell asleep at pass in to box not following man and he did it at ibrox same thing its a big weakness in his game.

 

See for me, he started the season brilliant, got dropped for Starfelt who was doing worse at that point than he was…. Justified in hindsight because it was major for how Ange wanted to play. Got brought in every now and again out of the cold, when he’s been dropped not due to form, he’s played right back and left back due to need this season. And he’s still very young and learning.

And he’s trusted as a young player to step in like that, I want him away for loan to learn outwith our fans demanding anything less as outstanding not good enough. He has the right attitude for me, has the ability, has the heart, he just needs a full season to learn positioning as a defender properly. Because he’s quite good at it already, and it’s not something you learn coming on with us dominating. He’s a guy that some fans have latched on to as hopeless now though, which is a load of *. Just as much as it was when he came into a * team and was a brightspot and lauded as the next big thing.

He’s been ahead of Julien for Ange. I like Welsh and wouldn’t agree with that player for player tbh, but the fact he is, is a major plus point towards both his attitude and ability. We want young players to get a chance up until they show they aren’t the finished article. You think we’d learn our lesson off of Ralston this year.

 

For me he’s fine against * opposition but against any semi decent side he is a liability

 

The thing with Welsh for me is it comes down to what the club and more importantly manager see his role being.

As a home grown, low cost back up that can step in during early round cup games or league games against bottom 6 he is component.

However if he is viewed as someone to be developed into a starting CB, I don’t see it with him.

He doesn’t really have any outstanding qualities, he is small for a CB and not strong in the air, he is not particularly good on the ball or at bringing it out from the back, which if you are a small CB you tend to have to be able to do.

My one gripe about him fulfilling the role of back up essentially is does that block a say Dane Murray or Bosun Lawal who look to have more potential to develop into first team players coming through?

 

Solid yesterday, suspect he will start alongside CCV until Starfelt is ready.

 

Very happy with his progress when comparing it to last preseason.

 

Seems way calmer and assured now. I’d like to see us still bring another comfortable on the ball centre half in but would be more than happy to start the season with ccv, starfelt, new signing, Welsh and Dane Murray as back up

 

A couple of times he dived in and seemed to take the man and not the ball. Not a massive problem that, he seemed to stop their counter attack a few times by fouling but his positional awareness still needs worked on. Thought he played well though. Seemed as assured as CCV, who has looked a bit leggy during pre season. Would still like another centre back in but at the same time, I really want to try and play this lad as much as possible. I genuinely believe there is a good player in there.

 

Thought he’s been strong so far and definitely looks better than Julien.

 

Hes not perfect, however he's young. If we play him he will get better. I'd still say he requires an entire season away like ajer had to get better.

 

I definitely would like to see him play for a whole season somewhere but just can't see us letting him go to do that. It looks like Julien will definitely be away before the window shuts. We already need another centre back and I would assume going forward, they will have 4 centre backs in CCV, Starfelt, Welsh and a new CB fighting out for the two positions. I thought that there were times last year that Welsh could have started and gave one of the first two lads a break and Ange kinda continued with CCV and Starfelt. More minutes on the park for Welsh this year is an absolute must or we loan him out. Just can't see us doing either though. Not sure if Ange really rates him the way some of us do.

 

Hobs looking for a defender surely a loan to them would be a good fit

 

Manager obviously prefers him to Jullien. I see alot saying we should loan him out but we will be able to give him a good number of games given our schedule. Perfect squad player imo. Ideal scenario would be CCV and someone as good as him alongside then Welsh and Starfelt as the back ups with Lawal loaned out.