WE are now well and truly into 2018 and it is time to figure out which players excelled in the Scottish Premiership in the first month of the year. Here are the best players for each position, decided through data.
Goalkeeper: Ofir Marciano
It was a tough month for Premiership goalkeepers. Aberdeen’s Joe Lewis and Celtic’s Craig Gordon were lost to long-term injury but fortunately there are plenty of other shot-stoppers to keep us entertained.
Tomas Cerny of Partick Thistle kept up his impressive form and Celtic target Trevor Carson made no less than nine saves over Motherwell’s three games, but it was Hibernian’s Ofir Marciano that came out on top.
The Hibs goalkeeper was instrumental in tight wins over Dundee and Motherwell and with six shots at Celtic Park keeping him busy there is no doubt Neil Lennon’s side could have left Glasgow with a much bigger defeat than 1-0.
Defender: Russell Martin
Rangers accomplished a quick
turnaround in players during the transfer window and one of the most impressive signings was that of former Norwich defender Russell Martin. The Scotland international has vast experience playing as a central defender at the highest level in England and of course for his country, and has made an immediate impact at the Ibrox club.
In January no Premiership club conceded fewer goals per game than Rangers, with Graeme Murty’s side showing a defensive aptitude that surpassed even Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic. A large part of that is due to the manner in which Martin has
comfortably slotted in alongside David Bates and shored up what once was a troublesome part of the Rangers team.
Midfielder: Olivier Ntcham
Some question marks have remained over the former Manchester City youngster since his big-money arrival at Celtic Park, but with every passing month the French midfielder’s performances are improving as he settles in.
Perhaps some of the criticism has stemmed from the false impression that the 21-year-old is a box-to-box or defensive midfielder – he is neither. And when the stats are examined, we can see he thrives when tasked with moving forward with the ball. In January, no player in the Premiership completed more passes in to the final third of the pitch, with Ntcham squeezing past Hibernian’s and former Celtic youngster, Dylan McGeouch with an average of 14 in each game.
Forward: Curtis Main
Louis, who? Motherwell may have been fearing the worst when they agreed to sell Louis Moult to Preston but they have now left that all behind with new striker Curtis Main hitting the ground running.
The 25-year-old free transfer started all three of Motherwell’s Premiership games and despite mixed results picked up a goal in every game – including a vital equaliser against Hearts in the dying moments of the match.
It remains to be seen if the English striker can keep up such an impressive goal tally, but for now he can look back with joy at a month that saw him outscore Alfredo Morelos, Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele.
Player of the month: Curtis Main
While Marciano, Martin and Ntcham have all done more than enough to deserve praise, it is quite something for a striker of relatively unknown ability to arrive in the Premiership and have such an immediate impact as Main did in January.
Motherwell’s success relies upon impressive goalscorers and few players have found themselves in the right place at the right time quite like Main.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here