Benjamin Nygren

Looked well of the pace majority of game, when dropped back into midfield much more like himself.
Looks lacking in match fitness.

 

Aye he's not a winger in the slightest, far too slow.

Needs to be played through the middle.

 

Still waiting to see the player i read about.

Looks average so far.

 

Think he’s got a bit of Rogic and O’Riley about him.

Nowhere near the pace required to play as a winger for me!!

 

Says it all having to shoehorn him into playing on the wing.

 

Terrible.

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I don't like his attitude. Seems to be a bit indulgent and petulant. I'd rather if he focused on his game than trying to get the crowd going at corners and crying to the referee when he loses possession.

 

Looked incredibly awkward and immobile today. Guilty of wanting too much time on the ball.

Hes got 3 goals to his name so far this season though which looks to be an achievement in itself for this version of Celtic.

 

What is it he's supposed to add as a right-winger? Genuinely.

Constantly has his back to goal because he doesn't have the pace required to go beyond the full-back. Sometimes tricky feet can cancel out the need for raw pace but he doesn't have that either.

He's a player who needs space and a bit of breathing room to really see the best of his attributes. You're never in a million * years going to get that as a right-winger for Celtic at Ibrox. And DEFINITELY not when you play our laboured style.

Would've surely been more use in a central area - which funnily enough was the position he kept trying to wander into when he had the ball.

 

Needed someone to join up with in midfield. Didn't happen. Ralston looked to have been told to invert to try and create some of more space, but Nygren's just too slow to use it, and didn't really look to have any chance of beating a man, as you say.

Not even that sure how well he fits in when playing in midfield. Might need a bit of patience with him.

 

Yeah saw one decent combination between him, Engels, and Hatate that gave Hatate the chance to shoot from 20 yards or so.

That was literally it.

 

Someone said today he's only played 14 games as a centre mid his entire career. According to transfermarkt that's true. 4 of which have came here.
He doesn't look like a RW to be honest but I also find it weird we have went out to sign a guy who's spent majority of his career as a RW to essentially bench our record signing.

 

Except he played nearly 80% of his games at the wing positions last season. The numbers simply don’t support that he’s a natural CM.

Maybe in Rodgers’ system, or in the Scottish football environment, CM might end up being where we see him played. There’s precedent for that kind of change of position, tbf: Kyogo, for instance, was a career-long LW before Ange moved him to CF.

But let’s hold off on ‘not a winger in the slightest’ when the performances that won him the move here were almost all put in on the wings.

 

Does it really matter where he played before? Rodgers has even used words akin to "playing him out of position". We see him as a midfielder going forward, not a winger

 

I won’t lie, mate: I had an internal debate on whether to dignify this with a response.

Moving positions is an adjustment, and adjustments can sometimes be awkward or take time - both of those things are obvious to anyone.
So why would we sign a left-footed RW, ostensibly to be Kühn’s replacement in that role, and then take the risk of making him adjust to CM when our record signing - still young and in need of development - rots on the bench?

The only way it makes any sense to me is that he wasn’t a Rodgers signing, and as soon as he got a look at him in the flesh, BR had no confidence he could play RW in this league.

Like I said before, maybe CM turns out to be his position in this squad and in the Scottish context, but precedent matters. Habits are formative, and almost all of his experience is habitually on the wings.
Let’s not kid ourselves on that he might not have teething problems for that reason. He clearly is doing so.

 

Not being a Rodgers signing actually makes most sense. Similar in a way to Lagerbielke in that he's been signed bcoz he's a good player but not necessarily a good fit for our system. Someone may need to have a word with whoever is our Scandinavian scout and show him a few videos of how we play.

We needed a RW and on paper hes a very good right winger but the reality is he doesn't really suit us as a RW and has been moved.

I know Engels struggled a bit last season but given the holes in our squad I doubt finding a replacement for Engels was a high priority just to then let him sit in the bench.

I think he was 100% signed as Khuns replacement but Rodgers clearly has other ideas for him.

Would have been interesting to see him play there with AJ behind him as may have worked better

 

Because it was clear even from his time in Denmark that most of his good work came from coming infield and having a knack of getting in the box and grabbing goals, something that Engels just doesn't do (aside from Pens). Add to the fact our right sided centre midfielders tend to play quite wide anyway, both O'Riley and Engels are evidence of that, having someone comfortable on those half spaces makes alot of sense.

From his videos Nygren was pretty elegant, not the quickest, kinda tall, great left foot, can pick a pass and nab a goal. Who does that sound like? Matt O'Riley. Who did we miss last season? Matt O'Riley.

Now I'm not saying it won't take an adjustment and tha cause he's not played there as often, as out wide, but it's blatantly obvious that his skillset is more suited to being a midfielder for us rather than a winger. I think he'll come good too.

I don't think he was ever Kuhn's replacement. More O'Rileys

 

I think certainly once Rodgers seen him that was the case but it still begs the question are we now just writing Engels off.

He's not done enough to deserve a start at the moment anyway so it's kind of a moot point but even if he was on fire and ripping it up, do we think Rodgers would leave out McGregor or Hatate for him?

It's a bit like our pursuit of the Tunisian boy in that we don't seem to have a proper strategic plan when it comes to who we sign. We now have two very strong and experienced left wingers in Maeda and Balikwisha, it's took a while but its now one of the strongest areas of the team and that's before Jota even comes back so why are we after another one?