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Nancy must unleash Celtic’s most frustrating player since Engels
Celtic are reportedly closing in on the appointment of Columbus Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy as their next permanent manager to replace Brendan Rodgers.
The French tactician is in ‘advanced talks’ to join the Scottish giants, but it remains to be seen exactly when he will be in post to start the job, with Martin O’Neill currently in interim charge.
Once Nancy is in the job and looking at what his priorities need to be, the new Celtic boss must find a way to get more out of central midfielder Arne Engels in the coming weeks and months.
Why Wilfried Nancy must revive Arne Engels for Celtic
The Scottish Premiership champions smashed their club record transfer fee to sign the Belgium international from Augsburg for a fee of £11m in the summer of 2024, and he showed plenty of promising signs in his first year at the club.
Engels delivered a return of ten goals and 13 assists in 52 appearances in all competitions for the Hoops, per Transfermarkt, which shows that he offered a decent threat as both a scorer and a creator of goals.
Unfortunately, the 22-year-old star has been frustrating to watch this season because he has only produced one goal and four assists in 20 outings in the 2025/26 campaign.
This is why Nancy must make getting the best out of Engels one of his top priorities, because he is evidently capable of contributing far more than he currently is.
Along with the Belgian starlet, the French boss must also unleash summer signing Benjamin Nygren, who has become Celtic’s most frustrating player since Engels.
Why Benjamin Nygren is a frustrating player for Celtic
Like the £11m club-record signing, the Sweden international is an incredibly frustrating player for the Hoops because you can see that the talent is there, but it does not always work out for him.
The left-footed central midfielder has scored six goals and provided three assists in 18 appearances for the club this season, per Sofascore, yet he has found himself on the bench for the last two league games under O’Neill.
Nygren is such a frustrating player because he can do the hard bits, scoring and creating goals, but he lets himself down at times with some of the simpler parts of the game in the middle of the park.
|
25/26 Premiership |
Benjamin Nygren |
Percentile rank vs CMs |
|---|---|---|
|
xG |
4.76 |
Top 1% |
|
Goals |
5 |
Top 1% |
|
xA |
2.77 |
Top 5% |
|
Assists |
2 |
Top 14% |
|
Dribble success rate |
29.4% |
Bottom 17% |
|
Duel success rate |
49.5% |
Bottom 44% |
|
Dribbled past |
6x |
Bottom 35% |
As you can see in the table above, he is exceptional at making an impact in the final third, yet is among the worst of his positional peers when it comes to competing in physical duels on and off the ball.
This explains why O’Neill has dropped him from the starting line-up in recent matches, because the midfield star has not proven that he can be reliable enough out of possession to go along with his attacking qualities.
The 24-year-old gem’s attacking output, though, suggests that he is a player who has a lot to offer to Nancy once he is in the building, as is also the case for Engels, which is why he must unleash the Swedish whiz from the start.
It will then be down to Nygren and Nancy to work together on the training pitch to either minimise the effects of his physical struggles, or to improve his work off the ball, to make him as effective as possible.
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