Celtic's signing of experienced Swedish international centre back Carl Starfelt from Rubin Kazan will quell some of the worries of the fan base as the centre-back position was looking incredibly light.
Nir Bitton's red card against Midtjylland once again exposed the lack of quality and depth available at centre-back.
The youthful pairing of Welsh and Murray put in a good performance in the crucial Champions League qualifier, but further quality and depth must be brought to the position.
When looking for signings, the easiest place to look is your own league.
Staff know the players and see them week after week. This allows clubs to gain a greater insight into their ability and future potential.
Jason Kerr is one such centre-back in the Premiership that could be considered to help ease Celtic’s woes.
Kerr has developed into a strong Premiership defender, performing well for St Johnstone in a season of outstanding success that culminated in a cup double.
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He came through the St Johnstone youth system before breaking into the team in 2018 where he has always looked comfortable.
He is a 6ft, right-footed, right-sided central defender with only one year left on his contract. This means there will be no large fee required to sign him.
He will likely move this summer to a higher level, netting St Johnstone a well-deserved fee after his years of service to the club.
Were Celtic to make a move, Kerr would bring his extensive experience of the game in Scotland and no settling in period.
The player will also be looking to move to a place where his chances of representing Scotland are highest, so the move would likely be desirable to him as well.
However, does the data indicate that Jason Kerr would be a good acquisition for Celtic who use a significantly different game model to the Perth side?
Heat Maps
The first thing I like to examine is positional data in the form of heat maps.
Positionally, Kerr has played on the right of a back three this season which allowed him more freedom to get forward and influence play as shown by his heat map.
He has played on the right side of a back four in previous terms so could offer some flexibility for Ange. Celtic look to be moving forward with a back four, so Kerr might be more of a gamble given his best performances have come in a three.
Data
I have generated radars and charts to help indicate if Kerr would be suitable for Celtic.
For centre-backs, I have 2 radars, one covering defensive capabilities and the other comfort in bringing the ball out.
Maximum and minimum data for radars comes from SPFL Premiership centre backs that have started at least 10 games.
Defensive Data
Kerr is a strong defender with a great defensive duel success rate of 75%.
For comparison, Ajer, who was just sold for a substantial fee, comes in at 71%.
For his height, Kerr has a decent aerial duel success rate of 62% suggesting that he has strong positioning that makes up for his lack of stature. This number isn’t far off Christopher Julien’s aerial duel success rate of 65% and the Frenchman is a relative giant at 6ft 5".
Compared to recent Celtic centre-backs, Kerr ranks very well, closing in on Jullien in both defensive and aerial duels.
Overall, from a defensive view, Kerr is probably at the level Celtic require. However, Celtic need more than just defenders, they also need their stoppers to be confident on the ball.
On the Ball Data
And this is where it all falls apart a bit - Kerr is not elite on the ball in any respect.
In terms of profile, he is fairly similar to the former Aberdeen player Scott Mckenna.
He is strong defensively but lacks the quality to build play for Celtic.
The gap in quality is clearly apparent below where Kerr is compared to his Celtic counterparts.
Conclusion
Although Kerr has shown himself to be a good Scottish Premiership level defender, he just hasn’t shown enough in possession to warrant Celtic making a move for him.
Much like McKenna, Kerr will move down south to the Championship and make a good career for himself.
In terms of Celtic, I would say he is one to avoid and we should look elsewhere for more suitable players to make Ange-Ball a success.
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