The story so far ...
IN a season like no other, the Premiership has taken a mid- season break for the World Cup in Qatar this winter.
Not quite at the half- way point of the campaign, the table is beginning to take shape in Scotland’s top flight. Here, we examine this term’s highs and lows so far.
BEST TEAM
Celtic. The most straight- forward answer here. The champions look red hot under Ange Postecoglou once again, building on what they started last year. Some of their free flowing attacking football has been joyful to watch. Also, they
have shown they have the metal to contend with setbacks and fight to the bitter end to ensure the threepoints stay with them.
MOST DEMORALISING DEFEAT
It terms of the outlook of the season, it must be said that the first derby between Celtic and Rangers produced a shocker for the away side.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men were blown away by their hosts in Glasgow’s east end. Celtic laid down a marker and Rangers have never really recovered, with further poor results against Livingston, St Johnstone and St Mirren leading to calls for the manager to be sacked. The aforementioned 9- 0 drubbing of Dundee United by Celtic also deserves a shout in this category,
with United still bottom of the table at present.
BEST SIGNING
This mid- season award will be jointly awarded to Bojan Miovski of Aberdeen and Rangers’ Anontio Colak. Both have scored 11 Premiership goals since joining in the summer. They are tied at the top of the goalscoring charts. The former has provided a muchneeded lethal touch up top for Jim Goodwin’s side. The reality is, he could’ve had more had he not missed a couple of recent penalties. Colak has been Rangers’ main success story this season. After a slow start, the Croatian quickly found his feet and became the club’s top striker. He’s filled the boots of Morelos nicely
and can be proud of his performances to date.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
This category could be spun in a few different ways depending on your perspective. For example, the introduction VAR has hardly been a success so far. However, for this, we note Alfredo edo Morelos’ performances. ances. Reporting back unfit nfit and with major questions ons marks over his attitude, titude, he’s just never got ot going this season. n. After being a talisman for the Ibrox club for so long, there’s no doubt Rangers have missed him.
Not just his goals, but his hold- up and link- up play. It’s difficult to see where Morelos goes from here in terms of recovering his Rangers career. It seems likely that he will be off at the end of his contract next summer.
BEST XI X SO FAR
4- 3- 3: Kelle Ke Roos ( Aberdeen); Nicky Devlin De ( Livingston), Cameron Camer Carter- Vickers ( Celtic), Celti Jack Fitzwater ( Livingston), Livi Greg Taylor ( Celtic); Ce Reo Hatate ( Celtic), C Keanu Baccus ( St S Mirren), Matt O’Riley ( Celtic); C Jota ( Celtic), Antonio Colak ( Rangers), Bojan Miovski ( Aberdeen).