Celtic must unleash “fantastic young player” who could be Kuhn 2.0

Sunday sees the primary silverware of the season up for grabs in Scotland, as fierce rivals Celtic and Rangers go head-to-head on the Nationwide Stadium within the League Cup Last.

Brendan Rodgers has never lost any of his 13 matches at Hampden as a supervisor, choosing up a trio of League Cups to this point, whereas he has the best win % of any manager in Previous Agency historical past (79%), claiming victory from 15 of his 19 encounters with Rangers, dropping solely as soon as.

The Hoops have gained the final two League Cup Finals between Glasgow’s massive two, most lately prevailing 2-1 in February 2023, courtesy of Kyōgo Furuhashi’s brace.

Proper now, remarkably, Celtic and Rangers both have 118 major honours to their name, which means victory for the Bhoys on Sunday would see them boast extra trophies than their fierce rivals for the first time since 1938.

Forward of this huge conflict, we ponder the important thing choice choice Rodgers has to make.

Celtic’s home dominance

Celtic have cruised by means of to a seventh League Cup Last in simply 9 seasons, overcoming each Hibs and Falkirk at Parkhead within the early rounds, albeit the present Championship leaders did give them a little bit of a scare in September, main 2-1 with solely 20 minutes to play, albeit late braces from Adam Idah after which Nicolas Kühn secured victory.

No such issues within the semi-finals nonetheless; dealing with an Aberdeen facet who, at that time, had nonetheless not tasted defeat underneath Jimmy Thelin, the Celts steamrollered the Dons, cruising to a 6-0 victory, 3-0 up by half-time and 5 in entrance by the hour mark, with Daizen Maeda scoring just the second hat-trick of his career in inexperienced and white.

Meantime, within the Premiership, the champions have collected 43 factors out of a doable 45, leaving them 9 factors clear on the prime and 11 factors higher off than Rangers, seemingly set for seize a thirteenth title in simply 14 seasons.

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In the meantime, they’re additionally going nicely within the Champions League, with Tuesday’s goalless draw towards Dinamo Zagreb leaving the Hoops twenty first within the gigantic desk, figuring out that a victory when already-eliminated BSC Young Boys go to Glasgow subsequent month will safe a spot within the knockout levels.

Earlier than then, consideration turns again to home issues, with Celtic searching for to hoist aloft a twentieth trophy out of the final 25 out there, most lately capturing the Scottish Cup in Could, beating their neighbours from throughout town in moderately dramatic circumstances, to place it mildly.

So, as Rodgers seeks to mastermind yet one more ultimate victory over Rangers, the query stays: who ought to he choose in midfield?

The case for Arne Engles

Following Matt O’Riley’s £25m sale to Brighton, Celtic broke their switch document to interchange him, paying £11m to Augsburg for the providers of Arne Engles.

This was an infinite outlay given, for context, the membership’s previous record fee was £9m paid to Paris Saint-Germain, turning Odsonne Édouard’s mortgage deal right into a everlasting transfer six years in the past.

Since swapping the Bundesliga for Glasgow, Engles has become a full-Belgian international, though he is but to nail down a assured beginning spot at Celtic, introduced as a second half substitute in Zagreb on Tuesday, regardless of scoring towards Hibernian the earlier weekend.

Rodgers has 4 attacking midfielders at his disposal, with two of the quartet set to start out alongside captain Callum McGregor on the weekend, so how does Engles evaluate to his counterparts?

Because the desk reveals, Engles ranks extremely in all metrics, when in comparison with his teammates who play in the identical place.

His manager stated recently that “Arne is a incredible younger participant”, backing him to emulate winger Kühn, who struggled to make an instantaneous impression following his transfer from Fast Wien, however has been excellent this season, scoring 11 goals in all competitions.

Based mostly on the above statistics, Rodgers ought to begin Engles alongside Reo Hatate, with Paulo Bernardo lacking out from the beginning, because of their superior passing skills, contemplating Rangers are prone to defend deep, which means Celtic will see loads of the ball, having averaged 57% possession across the last eight Glasgow derbies, ending up with lower than 50% solely as soon as throughout this era.

Both method, the Hoops are agency favourites to prevail in Sunday’s ultimate, with the Belgian prone to function prominently, ought to they certainly prevail.

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