John Collins shares what he noticed about Kasper Schmeichel after watching him as Celtic beat Hibernian

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Kasper Schmeichel has been a breath of fresh air since arriving at Celtic in the summer.

The experienced goalkeeper had big shoes to fill because Joe Hart had retired and left the number one Celtic spot vacant.

Many felt that Brendan Rodgers would replace Hart with a younger keeper, and whilst Celtic signed Viljami Sinisalo from Aston Villa, it was Schmeichel who would take the gloves.

On Sunday, the 38-year-old secured clean sheet number 24 of the season when Celtic beat Hibernian in the Scottish Cup.

Goals from Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah booked the Treble-chasers their semi-final ticket, with John Collins watching on from the stands at Celtic Park.

The former Hoops star liked what he saw from Schmeichel and how pivotal he is to the way Rodgers wants his teams to play.

READ MORE: Kasper Schmeichel enlightens baffled Gary Neville about how Celtic play ‘tactical chess’

John Collins on Kasper Schmeichel being like ‘another outfield player’ for Celtic

Hart was tremendous under Ange Postecoglou and then Rodgers, but many feel that Schmeichel has taken it to another level.

And the area in which the Denmark star has improved the team is with his passing out from the back.

During Celtic’s showdown with Hibs, Collins noted Schmeichel being like ‘another outfield player’ and how it is ‘difficult to press’ the team, as he told BBC Radio Scotland. 

“This is the visionary of Kasper Schmeichel, he is like another outfield player,” said Collins. “It is so difficult to press. They just pop it back to him.

Pat Bonner then added about Schmeichel and Manuel Neuer: “Both of those are in the twilight of their career and that’s what the young goalkeepers need to be working on. 

“Left and right. Left and right. Under pressure also. Not just doing it and it looks great. Then the game starts and they can’t do it when they are under pressure.”

Schmeichel’s passing stats for Celtic

As you can imagine, with Celtic dominating most games, then Schmeichel gets to see a lot of the ball and probably more than the opposition’s outfield players, at times.

Over the course of the season, he makes an average of just under 33 passes per game, as posted by WhoScored. 

What’s interesting here is that, despite Celtic playing much tougher games in the Champions League, he is making more passes in that competition than on the domestic scene.

However, it shouldn’t be a surprise because, despite that defeat to Bayern Munich, Celtic did improve in the Champions League this season.