Brendan Rodgers told he wasted Celtic player vs Rangers

FanSided World Football

·18 marzo 2025

Brendan Rodgers told he wasted Celtic player vs Rangers

Celtic had a weekend to forget. But fans will be hoping that Brendan Rodgers does not do that. He needs to get back to the drawing board and figure out what is going wrong for the Hoops in the Glasgow Derby. They have now lost back-to-back games against the Rangers and conceded thrice three times on the trot.

The Ibrox club were coming off of playing more than 120 minutes of football in midweek and only have an interim manager right now in the form of Barry Ferguson. On top of everything else, this has come in a season when the Rangers have looked completely out of sorts, especially in domestic competition.

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Naturally, questions have been raised about Rodgers' tactics on the day. And he has been told that playing Arne Engels in the number six role was a mistake and that the Belgian midfielder was wasted there.

As reported by 67 Hail Hail, Marvin Bartley told Clyde 1 Superscoreboard:

"For me, he was wasted in that deeper role, he really was.“There were a couple of times in the game where he went a little higher and tried to make some forward runs. “I know some people are saying it is his natural position, but for me, he just didn’t look comfortable at all. He looks so much more comfortable playing as a number eight.“He’s not one of them that looks like he wants to build the game. We speak about Callum McGregor and he gets on the ball and drops in between the two centre-halves when he needs to glue everything together.“Engels didn’t look comfortable, at all, in trying to do that role. This game, as a number six, the game passed him, and when he was trying to do things, then he was just trying to force things."

Brendan Rodgers told he wasted Celtic player vs Rangers

Celtic did not have Callum McGregor available against the Rangers. And as a result, Rodgers had to shake up his midfield combination. Under different circumstances, the club captain surely would have played in a game of this magnitude.

Engels did not have a great game to say the very least and was heavily criticised by the fans in the aftermath of it. But it is easy to see why he could have struggled in that role.

Engels was signed for a record fee in the summer but so far, he has had an up-and-down debut campaign with Celtic. There are times when he looks impressive but then, there are also days when he does not look good at all. Unfortunately, it was the latter at the weekend agains the Rangers at Parkhead.