‘At least he’s trying’ – The Celtic star who was better than Arne Engels vs Rangers

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The fallout over Celtic’s defeat to Rangers continues this week as the analysis and pundit reaction now falls onto individual players.

Already this week much has been of the fact that Callum McGregor was a big miss for Celtic after the Hoops captain missed out on the Glasgow Derby due to injury.

However, Celtic did have players to step in in McGregor’s absence but with all intents and purposes, both failed to have a material impact on the game or the result.

Arne Engels was the man Brendan Rodgers chose to play the Celtic captain’s role but pundit Simon Ferry reckons there was one midfielder whose performance against Rangers was better than the Belgian’s ‘all day’ long.

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Luke McCowan was ‘trying’ harder for Celtic vs Rangers than Arne Engels

Ferry told Open Goal, “I think Engels has got quality, by the way. I think he is. I think he’s technically very good.

“But to play for Celtic or Rangers, you need to be more than a good player? And I’ve said it before, his personality, I just look at his face, his body language, to show for the ball.

“McCowan got criticised yesterday, but I would take McCowan’s performance over Engels any day because at least he’s trying to get the ball, trying to make someone happen, trying to be positive when he gets it. I just didn’t see it with Engels.”

Arne Engels’ Celtic stats against Rangers vs Luke McCowan’s

So to test Ferry’s theory, 67 Hail Hail took a look at the stats of the game to see who actually was the better player out of McCowan or Engels.

McCowan did create and assist for one of Celtic’s goals but other than that, both were as equally poor on the day as each other.