It might be time to put the hardhat on for this one. While some Celtic supporters remain unconvinced by Arne Engels’ contribution at the weekend, others were pleasantly surprised by his display in Saturday’s goalless draw with Hibernian…
Arne Engels with Brendan Rodgers at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Opinions on the young Belgian midfielder remain divided, but against Hibs, there were signs that Engels might be beginning to find his place in Brendan Rodgers’ evolving midfield.
The Celtic boss commented on Engels prior to the game with Hibs at the weekend on BBC Scotland’s Sportsound. Some have viewed it as a sign Engels is viewed more as a squad player at present. But another way of looking at the manager’s comments is to consider Rodgers may be laying down a challenge for Engels, who appears to have dropped behind Benjamin Nygren in the midfield pecking order, mostly due to the Swede’s greater goals threat.
“Arne’s role in the squad is very, very important. I don’t think there are too many players, if any, that will cement their place in the team. But, of course, it’s one where Benji has played in front of him this season, more because of his goal threat.
Arne Engels – theRangers v Celtic,31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
“We lost goals out of our team. A lot of goals. And Arne hasn’t scored as many goals as, say, what Nygren has done in his career. He is a player who affects, creates goals and scores goals. So, for Arne, he just needs to continue what he is doing and provide the goal threat. He works hard. He gives us other qualities that we need within our squad.”
Central midfield has been a topic of constant debate this season. Rodgers has generally settled on a trio of Callum McGregor at the base, with Reo Hatate and Benjamin Nygren operating as the more advanced No.8s. But injuries and rotational tweaks opened the door for something different at the weekend. With Hatate unavailable, Rodgers deployed Luke McCowan alongside Engels ahead of McGregor, and the balance looked quietly promising.
Luke McCowan of Celtic celebrates with teammates Callum McGregor & Johnny Kenny after scoring to give Celtic a 1-0 lead. Celtic v St Mirren, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 03 August 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace. IMAGO / Shutterstock (The Celtic Star)
McCowan, occupying Hatate’s usual left-sided role, brought creativity and composure. Unlike Hatate, whose responsibilities have expanded this season to accommodate Kieran Tierney’s arrival, and the loss of Greg Taylor’s inverted full-back contributions, McCowan’s brief was simpler, focus on linking play and supplying the attack. He executed it well, offering a steady stream of forward passes and intelligent movement.
But it was Engels who provided the afternoon’s most intriguing subplot. Tasked with more defensive responsibility than McCowan, the Belgian impressed with his athleticism, positional awareness, and range of passing. His presence not only protected McGregor but also seemed to liberate the Celtic captain. For the first time in weeks, McGregor was able to venture forward more frequently, reminding everyone of his quality as a creative force.
Celtic captain Callum McGregor looks frustrated at full-time. Final score Celtic 0 Hibernian 0. Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 27 September 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace IMAGO Shutterstock
The performance also raised an important question, is there now a case to give Engels an extended run, even when options return?
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Arne Engles could solve Celtic’s midfield frustrations……..
By handing in a transfer request.
The midfields needing fresh input .it’s stale slow and hard to watch Hatate just gives the ball away a shadow of the player he was under Ange ,Ingles seems to be everyones new whipping boy and fk knows why the petulant one hasn’t gave him a full run in the team
we have the players ,we also have a useless manager who plays the one way never changes the system never has a plan b ,we’ve went back the way , every manager has his number even jim Goodwin had it
yet still folk think he’s Elite
On Thursday, it remains unclear as to who will be given the starting position for Hatate.
McCowan still doesn’t seem to be trusted in the bigger games as such, especially at European level.
Calmac would be the natural choice imo, but he remains unmovable in his role, not unless a game is won easily.
So potentially Paulo would be favourite, even if I think it actually might work better for ourselves, if calmac and Paulo swapped roles imo?
The midfield areas haven’t functioned as well as I would like for considerable amount of time.
Especially with a 3 who can be man marked to easily, especially against the back to the wall teams. So in turn having to rely on the full backs, to try and create the overloads from deeper with less space to operate within.
As much as I wouldn’t complain about having 2 options available now, for each role within the midfield areas. Still not convinced that it function as well within the structure of our team set up, and style of play so focused upon a possession game imo?
It’s common enough nowadays to have a 5/5 split between defensive and attacking main roles within a team.
Dont believe we need to be set up in such a way, within so many of our SPFL matches imo.
We still don’t seem to interested in getting runners from our midfield areas, along with getting shots on target from distance, to try and draw a defensive set up, out of position more so, than able to block shots to easily.
As we don’t offer to much differently, then a high decency is relied upon scoring the first goal to try and change the course of a game. Hardly helped by ourselves still quite venerable from set plays.
So the structure of our team, along with the game plans involved, will determine who actually gets the starting position. To predictable for my liking, that stems beyond just the midfield areas also imo.
Still have a look about ourselves, that we are still searching for the right combinations within the team at present, which I would say was a waste of a pre season, when you would expect the likes to have been in operation better than what we have seen to date.
Moreso in the midfield areas, where the blame of the transfer window wasn’t in existence, and still not functioning as well as expected either imo