Celtic's 'Jurassic Park' signing, Rangers captain silencing his critics, former Celtic man with talismanic performance, unhappy Dundee United fans - Scottish Premiership winners and losers

A look back at the weekend’s action from the Scottish Premiership

Scott Wright intercepts Shane Duffy in the build up to Aberdeen's second goal against Celtic at Pittodrie. Picture: SNS

Loser - Shane Duffy (Celtic)

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should."

This astute observation was made by the character of Ian Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldblum, in the 1993 film Jurassic Park (you may have heard of it). But if you swap the word "scientists" for "recruitment team" and the subject from the cloning of dinosaurs to the acquisition of Shane Duffy, then you’ve got a perfectly bastardised analogy to throw at the Parkhead hierarchy over their transfer strategy.

Duffy's arrival was met with much fanfare at the time. He was an English Premier League centre-back and a Celtic supporter. What could possibly go wrong?

Celtic did need a new central defender, especially as Neil Lennon insisted on using three of them in his starting XI. What they didn’t need was a heavy-footed, clean-your-lines centre-back with limited ability on the football. Duffy started reasonably well but has looked increasingly uncomfortable with each passing game and, if the evidence over the past week is anything to go by, is now so unsure of himself that he’s even struggling to carry out his bread and butter tasks – such as his attempted hooked clearance, instead of simply knocking it back to his goalkeeper, which led to Aberdeen’s second in Sunday’s 3-3 draw at Pittodrie.

With Celtic moving back to a four-man defence and Christopher Jullien likely to reclaim a spot once he recovers from injury, things aren’t looking good for the Irish international.

Winner – James Tavernier (Rangers)

The Rangers captain hasn’t had his critics to seek during his time in Scottish football. At the beginning it was his deficiencies as a defender, but even once he made himself respectable enough at that end of the park, and remained an absolute force of nature at the other end, he still managed to get a lot of abuse thrown his way, typically by members of his own support who scapegoated him and his suitability as captain whenever the entire team failed to properly clear a mental hurdle.

There is a long way to go in this campaign and Celtic aren’t going to struggle forever, so let’s hang back a little before we start anointing the men from Ibrox. However, there’s no doubting that at this moment they look the team likelier to take the title. And while there has been deserved praise for the likes of Borna Barisic, Ryan Kent and a few others this season so far, Tavernier has probably been their best performer, with Sunday’s showing in the 2-0 win over Livingston another example of that.

Some captains rant and rave, others lead by example. If Tavernier can continue to do the latter and will his team through some of the less glamorous fixtures in the league, the type they’ve stumbled over in pursuit of the title regularly over the previous four seasons, then he’ll silence those critics for good.

Winner – Tony Watt (Motherwell)

The former Celtic and Hearts striker just about did everything in Motherwell’s 4-0 win over Ross County. He netted the first, won the penalty for the second, cleared the ball off the line at the other end and flicked on a header for the fourth. His hold-up play was strong and he linked well with team-mates throughout.

Devante Cole’s return to Fir Park has helped bolster their attacking options, but they’ll still need someone up top to emerge as a talismanic figure if Stephen Robinson’s side are going to get over their early-season malaise and return to the top half. Watt gave the clearest indication from any of their strikers so far that he could be that man.

Winner – Paul Hanlon (Hibs)

The veteran centre-back’s performances this season have flown under the radar quite a bit with a lot of the love instead going to his centre-back partner Ryan Porteous. It’s perfectly understandable. The latter represents real hope for the future as well as being an important contributor in the present, but Hanlon has had the best campaign of a much-improved Hibs defensive corps.

He kept that up this past weekend with an assured performance against Kilmarnock striker Nicke Kabamba. The battling, physical Englishman typically represents the sort of match-up that Hanlon has problems with, but he dealt with him superbly in a 1-0 away win for Jack Ross’ side.

Loser – Dundee United fans

Generally, things are OK at Tannadice. They’re in sixth place in the table, have remained undefeated in three of their four previous league games and have racked up a pair of clean sheets in their last two outings. Seeing as this is their first season back in the top flight, under a new manager, at a period of high financial uncertainty, they’d probably be quite happy with that. But the supporters are already getting fed up with the style of football they’re being asked to watch.

Across the last two games they’ve tallied up an Expected Goals total of 0.44. They aren’t missing chances, they’re just barely creating any. Unfortunately for impatient fans, it might not change any time soon. Mickey Mellon has tried a few different looks, but it seems a variation of a five-at-the-back system is the one he trusts the most to eke out results with a squad that is largely made up of players signed by his predecessor.

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