Alongside Engels: 8/10 star who won 78% of duels was colossal for Celtic

With a comparatively easy 2-0 victory over Hearts at Parkhead on Saturday, Celtic maintained their stellar start to the 2024–25 Scottish Premiership.

With new recruit Kasper Schmeichel having a fantastic debut to his career in Glasgow, the Hoops have now won all five of their top-flight games without giving up a goal.

Following a handball from Nicolas Kuhn’s cross, Arne Engels opened the score from the penalty spot. Luke McCowan then came off the bench to open the scoring for the team with a long-range left-footed goal.

Club record signingAfter spending £11 million to join from Augsburg in the summer, Engels had a great afternoon at Paradise and gave a great performance.

The statistical performance of Arne Engels versus the Hearts

Paulo Bernardo and McCowan were left on the bench as the Belgian wizard was chosen to make his entire debut for Celtic in the middle of the park with Reo Hatate and Callum McGregor.

In the end, Brendan Rodgers made a brilliant choice because Engels gave an outstanding performance both in and out of possession.

In his eighty minutes on the pitch, the 20-year-old sensation scored from the penalty spot, struck the crossbar, completed 87% of his passes, and created one chance. This demonstrated his dependability while handling the ball and his ability to shoot and create opportunities.

To help the Hoops maintain their perfect record, he also made one block and one tackle in addition to winning six of his nine physical duels, including 100% (2/2) of his aerial battles.

For Rodgers, centre defender Cameron Carter-Vickers was equally as impressive as Engels on Saturday, making the Scottish powerhouses an even bigger story.

Numbers from Cameron Carter-Vickers’ performance against the Hearts

With his labour at the centre of the defence, the USA international has contributed significantly to the team’s amazing defensive record despite having played every minute of the league season thus far.

Ben Banks of GlasgowWorld gave Carter-Vickers an 8/10 for the match, and he made several crucial stops to preserve Schmeichel’s goal.

Along with being a calm presence behind the ball, the central defence completed 89 out of 100 passes attempted and four of his six long pass efforts.

Carter-Vickers made an amazing six interceptions during the game, more than any other player on the field, and you can see in the above table that he won 78% of his duels both in the air and on the deck combined.

These numbers demonstrate the strength of the former Tottenham Hotspur player at the defence as he helped Celtic retain another clean sheet by dominating the Hearts forwards, especially Lawrence Shankland, the current PFA Scotland Player of the Year.

This was an above-average performance by his typical standards, as the 26-year-old behemoth had won 69% of his duels in the Premiership this season and averaging 2.4 interceptions per game.

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