Simunovic and What Might Have Been
The formal end of season saw the inevitable annual round of players leaving the club. One such was a relatively big money signing from Dinamo Zagreb in 2015, Jozo Simunovic.
He leaves having amassed 5 League Titles, 3 Scottish Cups and 3 League Cups from 126 appearances. All 5 of his goals came in league games.
Costing anywhere from £2.5m to £3m in fees, he was one of 3 centre backs to join that season along with Boyata and Sviatchenko. The season before had seen a stellar partnership of Denayer (season loan) and Van Dijk (big money to Southampton) that needed replacing.
Season by Season
Right from the off, Simunovic was declared unfit to play which was odd given there was no specified injury and he had joined on 1st September presumably after a full pre season with his Croatian club. He then became first choice in late October partnering Boyata.
That lasted until late January 2016 when the first of many knee injuries ended his season. A typical piece of Deila back luck you may say given he was the Norwegian’s biggest money signing.
It took until mid-September 2016 and under a new manager (Rodgers) to recover from that set back. What followed was his most prolific season appearance wise. Simunovic racked up 2824 minutes in the only season of his Celtic career where he averaged over 30 games worth of 90 minutes. He appeared in 33 matches including both cup finals and was thus an integral part of an historical unbeaten domestic treble. It would be the high-water mark of his Celtic career. His partnership that season was mostly with Sviatchenko.
Rodgers’s second season began with the recurring theme of centre back unavailability. Sviatchenko suffered a knee injury that floored him for 4 months and he barely played for Celtic again. Boyata was out with a similar injury until late September. Rodgers guddled through with a combination of Simunovic, a young Ajer and a repurposed Bitton. Goals were leaked a plenty in the Champions League and Simunovic then suffered an Achilles injury in October / November.
His performances had been fitful as he had to miss games on artificial surfaces, specifically Astana and Kilmarnock. This theme continued whereby it was felt that to manage his knee condition, it was unwise to let him play on non-grass surfaces.
By seasons end, Boyata and Ajer had established themselves as a partnership and Simunovic’s appearances became more sporadic. There would be a run of 4 games then a knock or a suspension.
The 2018/19 season saw another centre back disaster unfold. Rodgers and Boyata fell out and the Belgian did not appear until late August, by which time the Champions League campaign fell with Simunovic and Hendry extremely shaky in Athens. Benkovic did not arrive until mid-September, Compper was nowhere to be seen, Bitton had a serious knee injury and it was left to young Ajer, learning the position, to hold things together at the back.
Simunovic suffered ankle injuries that curtailed action from August through to the start of December. He was then fairly regular as he, Benkovic and Ajer shared duties between injuries. With Benkovic returning to Leicester City, Ajer still developing, it remained a real problem position. It was there for Simunovic to be the number one pick if only he could have stayed fit.
Last season Simunovic was unavailable with knee trouble from late August through December. He was back in the side towards the end of the season but a bad night with a calamitous individual error at home to Copenhagen was sadly his last appearance.
The Injury Theme
Simunovic has been part of the most successful run of trophy accumulation in Celtic’s history. Triple Trebles, 11 trophies in a row and 9 titles. That is more than the vast majority of players will ever accomplish.
He could have been a Celtic regular but the injury curse kept hitting. If that sounds like bad luck, it perhaps wasn’t. On CQN, the claim is that a Harley Street specialist missed the knee problem that has since been described as “degenerative” and has resulted in much down time as well as enforced management to avoid artificial pitches.
The numbers are stark:
He missed nearly as many games (107) as the minutes worth of time he appeared in (113.47). Only one season saw in excess of 30 matches worth of minutes. Celtic play a lot of games.
This season saw Jullien and Ajer both appear in over 40 games worth of minutes. This is the first time this has happened since Van Dijk and Denayer in 2014/15. In fact, NO Celtic Centre back appeared in more than 3500 minutes since Boyata in 2015/16 until this season.
Simunovic is symptomatic of what has been a multi-year weakness in Celtic’s squad management. Once again (and this is a different article) if Ajer leaves Celtic are again in a hole as regards this position especially if it is to be three at the back.
But, Was He Any Good?
Simunovic, stylistically, was definitely in the “born to defend” school of stoppers. He rarely ventured forward or even connected in the opposition box from corners – 5 goals from 68 shots.
As a defender he was physical and fast enough.
My measure of centre backs is to plot Defensive Action Success Rate (a % of defensive actions that were successful) with Possession Win % (the % of defensive actions that maintained or won back possession). Neither includes passing.
Here is the plot for the centre backs since 14/15.
The AVERAGE plot in Red is the average for all the centre backs listed. There are a few distracting points to pull out from this though before we settled on Simunovic:
Ajer and Jullien are really quite good
Benkovic would be a great returnee, injuries permitting
Hendry really is that bad
Simunovic is nested in and around the AVERAGE plot. He is very close to Boyata who is probably remembered more fondly due to high profile goals and not being injured as much (but still injured quite a lot). We know Boyata is now a good standard Bundesliga defender. Simunovic on his day (i.e. on the pitch) can also be that. Whether his degenerative knee condition allows that is the key question for him and anyone looking to pick him up for free.
Conclusion
Simunovic is clearly a very talented player. He accumulated 11 trophies at Celtic and was one of the bedrocks of the invincible treble. His iconic goal against Kilmarnock when the Number 5 scored as the clock said 67 was a wonderful piece of theatre and a poignant vignette in memory to the incomparable Billy McNeill. That Miller tackle was comedy gold.
So, a wee bit of Celtic history will always be Simunovic.
Injuries have severely restricted what could have been Celtic’s number 5 for many seasons. Time has move on and new starters have emerged.
All the best Jozo and Hail Hail.