Celtic FC left-back Keiran Tierney is a reported transfer target for Arsenal (and Liverpool) so we take a look at what could he bring to the squad.
Tierney was one of the best performers in the Celtic squad that remained unbeaten in the Scottish Premiership and the youngster has attracted a lot of interest from Premier League teams, especially Arsenal.
The 20-year-old, a life-long Celtic supporter, rose through the Celtic youth ranks and has become an invaluable part of the first team since he was promoted to the senior squad in December 2015.
He made a total of 40 appearances for Celtic across all competitions last season and managed to score two goals and make 12 assists.
Style and strengths
Unlike plenty of full-backs who are either better at going forward or staying at the back, Tierney makes his presence felt at both ends. His work rate is admirable and the youngster is already showing that he has all that is needed for a player to become a world class full-back.
His tackling is one of the mains strengths and on one occasion Celtic’s captain Scott Brown has said that Tierney is “hard as nails” and “would tackle his granny”.
The youngster makes an average of two tackles per-game and 1.7 interceptions, and just to show how good he is at taking on opposing players, he makes just 0.7 fouls per-game and in the entire season (40 games) he got only two yellow cards.
While going forward, his greatest strength is crossing, whether it is an early cross from deep, or close to the byline. His balls often find their target and create dangerous goal-scoring opportunities.
Physical strength and great pace make him a dangerous and tough opponent as he is able to both chase opponents back and outrun them when going forward, and his commitment is never in doubt as he works up and down the line for the whole match.