Celtic’s 4-0 hammering of St Johnstone was a superb all-round team performance by Brendan Rodgers’ side.
The Celtic boss made various changes to his starting XI as he rotated his squad ahead of the Glasgow Derby match against Rangers on Thursday.
With Callum McGregor dropped to the Celtic bench, it was up to Paulo Bernardo, Reo Hatate and Arne Engels to control the engine room and they didn’t let their manager down.
Despite the whole team putting in a brilliant performance, it was Arne Engels who caught the eye of the Celtic support and many sent a message to the young Belgian’s critics after the 21-year-old came under the spotlight after his big £11m summer move to the Bhoys from Augsburg.
Celtic fans shootdown Arne Engels’ critics after superb St Johnstone performance
67 Hail Hail gave the Celtic midfielder a 9/10 rating for his St Johnstone performance after Engels helped dismantle a dogged Saints defence.
And it seems that coupled with his brilliant display in Celtic’s win over Motherwell, the fans are now sending a clear message to Engels’ critics.
One Celtic fan said, “Most of the criticism is unjustified, played well on Thursday and there were still a few people complaining about him.” whilst another said, “I think the Bhoy is doing a grand job, as you say the figures don’t lie. He’s only gonna improve. HH.”
One Hoops fan praised, “Great player just needs a bit more time. People hate on him just because of his price tag and it’s an easy target. Anybody sensible can see that he’s a really good player.”
Another commented that Engels’ price tag is creating unjust criticism, “The criticisms of him are over exaggerated because of his price tag. If we had paid £3m for him people would be raving about his contribution so far.”
Confidence, time and not being judged due to his price tag seem to be the message some Celtic fans were trying to get through to Engels’ critics and it seems that Brendan Rodgers agrees.
Brendan Rodgers says Arne Engels is going to get ‘better and better’ at Celtic
Speaking after the match, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers heaped praise on Engels and said he could see the young Belgian’s confidence growing with each passing game.
Rodgers told Celtic TV [2m 6s], “I think he’s imposed himself since he’s been here. I think he’s a young guy who’s adapting to how we play and how we work, and you can just see his confidence growing all the time and getting better and better.
“So that’s what development is. It’s giving people time to improve, and we’re now seeing a young player at 21 who’s got many, many great attributes, and we see that in his game.
“So yeah, delighted for him.”
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