Charlie Mulgrew reveals what surprised him about Celtic signing Michel-Ange Balikwisha on Glasgow Derby debut

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Michel-Ange Balikwisha was thrown into the deep end for his Celtic at Ibrox.

The winger, who completed a move from Royal Antwerp in the week prior to the match, was a long-term target for Brendan Rodgers, who had stressed the need to add quality to his squad’s forward areas.

An injury to Jota will keep the Portuegese winger out until 2026, and Celtic have also lost a large number of goal contributions in selling Nicolas Kuhn to Como.

These are not easy gaps to fill, so in choosing his main winger signing, Rodgers had to be careful. When Balikwisha made his Hoops debut at Ibrox, the team around him was not at its firing best.

For one former Celtic vice-captain however, there were signs that Celtic are still missing something, judging from the Belgian youth international’s performance.

Charlie Mulgrew surprised by Celtic signing’s lack of pace and directness

The new signing was match fit, having played in all of Antwerp’s matches so far this season, making him instantly available for the match at Ibrox.

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For Charlie Mulgrew however, there was a lack of pace to his game which stood out on his Celtic debut up against James Tavernier.

Speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, Mulgrew said: “It’s a hard game to judge him on, at Ibrox straight away. What surprised me a wee bit about him though, was that I thought he would be quicker.

“I don’t know if it’s just me, but he didn’t look too quick to me. He looked like more of a technical type of player, maybe an inside sort of ten.

“He had a chance to take on Tavernier a couple of times, and it seems to have went out of the game. Where is it that wingers go at their full-back?”

As Mulgrew mentioned, the difficult nature of Balikwisha’s debut makes it hard to properly judge him – the players around him didn’t offer much help.

The hope for Rodgers and the Celtic Park faithful will be that the 24-year-old’s upcoming performances are more fruitful.

Celtic have left Brendan Rodgers with a makeshift selection of winger options

The case for both Balikwisha and fellow new Celtic signing Sebastian Tounekti is that they are left-wingers who prefer to cut in onto their right foot.

This leaves Yang Hyun-Jun and James Forrest as Rodgers’ only right-wing options – a fairly worrying prospect given the broad standard of the pair’s performances last season.

It is also worth noting that as a left-footer, Kuhn offered Rodgers an option to cut in from that side, just like Patrick Roberts did so effectively in Rodgers’ first spell.

With a limited wide selection consisting of only right-footers who mostly prefer the left-wing, Rodgers will have to work some magic to have autumn form as good as what the side showed last campaign.