Arne Engels

Winning 4-0 and your first thought is to slag one of our players who didnt even start.

 

Definitely wasn't my 1st thought but OK.

 

Concerning

 

Its not a great look if he cant get a start in a game like todays. Same goes for Bernardo. They arent going to develop spending most of the time on the bench. Neither of them will be prepared to stay here as a back up player so something will have to give.

I suspect this will be Hatates last year at the club so that should open up a starting berth next season. And with McGregor another year older next season, will he be able to give as many minutes?

The questions for me are how do Engels (and Bernardo) fit into the clubs plans?

Are they succession planning for Hatate potentially moving on and McGregor reducing his game time? Or are they genuinely just surplus to requirement now.

The other question is Rodgers himself. How invested is he actually in developing players now hes in the final year of his contract? Hes talked about being perhaps open to staying subject to certain changes of policy(which look unlikely under this board). But do you take that at face value or is he just covering himself and realistic feels hes done at the end of the season.

If its a case he reckons this is his last season - then he may not be interested in developing players or changing his tried and tested.

 

Deffo alarming this..

He's been huffy before in games, sulking a fair bit. I wonder if there's been a bit of that to the manager..

An 11 mill man shouldn't be sitting out and getting no minutes, half hours and no a regular for us right now..

Personally I'd have him in midweek..

 

I have always defended him and said that he'll come good but im starting to doubt his footballing ability. At least in our system.

If you got the question what's his quality you would not be able to answer. There is no stand-out quality to his game.

 

Wait and see if he's here next season and wether the new manager has a role for him to play.
This season seems a washout already for him and Bernardo which is weird considering how * Hatates been for sometime!

 

Yep. Even though i slated Engels i would still say that Hatate is comfortably the worst CM we have atm. Not talking about his potential ability, but what he puts on the park.

 

Engels seems to be going backwards, any remaining confidence draining.
If it continues, I'd seriously consider loaning him back.to Belgium / Germany from Jan to June to get his mojo back.

 

Hatate's ball was absolute class for Tounekti’s goal yesterday.

 

As said before he just doesn’t really suit the box to box 8 role, he’d be better as an out and out 10 or sitting as a 6 especially with a double pivot.

Something we should really be playing in Europe and the fact we are no longer inverting fullbacks.

 

Think we’ve spunked 11 million on him. Unless a new manager comes in and Rodgers leaves at the end of season he’s not going to get a look in.

 

Think we might see more of him in Europe to try and get his value up a bit with the view of selling him in January.

 

I wonder if he’s another that’s asked away and been told no.
Our midfield needs a complete rebuild starting with a successor to McGregor.