Arne Engels

He's suited better to the 6 but won't get a game there and will be shoehorned in which disrupts the balance of our play. We either need to coach him into being versatile or we manage calmaca game time.

But from what I've gathered in preseason....we are a better midfield unit with calmac, hatate, nygren. Its suited what we were used to witu rogic and MOR in the past.

 

There's more chance of me getting a short, back and sides

 

To me he would be best utilised in a midfield shape that had two deeper players or 6’s with both him and McGregor playing there and then a Nygren or Hatate ahead of them.

McGregor would then only need to cover half the park and not the full pitch in front of the back four and over time they could build an understanding of when one goes the other covers etc.

I think for most of our games we get away with the creative midfield three of McGregor, Hatate and Nygren but I do worry about them getting overrun against better opponents or in more physical contests.

We could actually be pretty flexible with Nygren and use him like the false winger that McGregor played for Rodgers under his first tenure. Where Maeda would come in and make a front two with Idah or Yamada and Nygren had licence to drift between the 10 and right wing, Johnston would provide width from full back and Engels could help cover that.

It’s hard to tell as I don’t see our squad being the way it is just now once we get into the season.

 

Utter Celtic Da comment coming up. The guy that’s raising the flag on Sunday, Paul McStay used to dictate the play for us, ran the midfield and made us tick. Engels has had some great moments but rarely if ever runs a game. Hopefully he can in the future. McStay was doing it at his age

 

ITK Shelby - who we signing? Sounds promising.

 

Had a bit of fire about him when he come on. Was good to see that

 

He was good when he came on, think knowing he isnt guaranteed to start anymore will make a difference.

 

His desire want to win is top class.

 

His corners aren’t though

 

Was impressed when he game on. Good desire

 

Aye better today, think he's got a good bit of aggression about him. Just needs to put everything together and he'll get there.

Really hope Rodgers isn't trying to coach him away from what he's good at, it's always had that feel about it to me.

 

Came on with urgency and was desperate to win, as did McCowan. Exactly what we needed. Good attitude and thought he put in a positive cameo. His tackle he got booked for was excellent, was never a foul let alone a yellow. Too many people writing him off too early.

 

I agree he was “up for it” but outwith that he contributed not a lot. Our best sub was Jamesy, yet again.

 

Our best sub was McCowan. He won't us the game. Forrest did alot of running but his end product was dire.

 

Really not wanting a slaying match however, McCowan done next to nothing. Had a shot that hit about 14 players before it went in. Let’s accept a win which unfortunately, highlighted the poor level of our team and squad for that matter.

 

Instead of playing Yang I'd be playing Engels and put Nygren on the right until we get winger's. Yang isn't anywhere near Celtic quality.

 

We'll agree to disagree, I felt the fresh legs and urgency McCowan and Engels brought ended up proving the difference. Didn't feel like Forrest did much. But agreed our squad is in a really poor state and we need massive improvement, especially in the wide areas.