Benjamin Nygren has 18 goals to his name this season, but the Celtic star still has his critics.
One of them is Chris Sutton, who only over a month ago stated that Nygren ‘hasn’t been a success‘ since moving to Celtic in the summer from FC Nordsjælland.
Fast forward to the present, and Sutton has stated that Nygren is ‘the strangest player’ in Scotland following the Hoops’ 2-2 draw at Rangers on Sunday at Ibrox.
“He’s the strangest player in Scottish football,” said Sutton. “You look at his goals record, and it’s amazing.
“He has this tremendous instinct for goals. But actually, what you want from him in that midfield is to control games. I just don’t think he has the legs.”
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Nygren started in the middle of the park at Ibrox, alongside Callum McGregor and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – the latter was subbed off at half-time.
It was Reo Hatate who changed the game, as Sutton was touching upon Celtic’s slow-paced midfield following the match.
That’s when he mentioned the ‘enigma’ that is Nygren, and how he has a ‘tremendous instinct’ for goals, but doesn’t have the legs to operate in the middle of the park, as he told the Warm-Up.
“Martin O’Neill, the changes he made at half-time, was that an admission that he got things wrong in the first half?” said Sutton. “I think so.
“I also have sympathy for him because, when you look at Hatate’s performances this season. They have been so poor. He looks so disinterested. He looks like he is sulking.
“With Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, I talked to you before the game about Celtic’s midfield. You have to have legs.
“Nygren is an enigma, isn’t he? He’s the strangest player in Scottish football. You look at his goals record, and it’s amazing.
“He has this tremendous instinct for goals. But actually, what you want from him in that midfield is to control games. I just don’t think he has the legs. I don’t know what his best position is. I think that’s something that has been levelled at him throughout his career.”
Nygren’s running stats in the Europa League
Unfortunately, Scottish football doesn’t provide week-to-week in-game data where fans, pundits and the media can digest the detailed stats of teams and players.
But UEFA’s tracking data does provide those detailed stats, and Nygren’s running stats on the European stage this season make for interesting reading.
The Swedish star played ten Europa League games this term, starting seven of them, playing over 600 minutes and playing around 60 minutes per match.
| Games | Starts | Goals | Assists | Total minutes | Distance covered per match | Top speed |
| 10 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 616 | 11.6KM | 31.47 km/h |
The interesting thing here is that an all-action midfielder in the Europa League is covering an average of ‘11.5 km to 12.5 km per 90 minutes’, so in that sense, Nygren is hitting the mark.
On such a difficult stage, he is showing he has the legs to move across the pitch; perhaps it’s just a perception that has grown around his game since moving to Scotland?
When it comes to speed, the top players are around the ‘35.0 km/h to 36.5 km/h’ mark, which isn’t a surprise because Nygren isn’t known for his speed, but he still covers the ground very well, despite that.
Nygren is still moving around the pitch in Europe like an elite player would; perhaps he needs better legs around him to bring the most out of him, rather than looking at the player himself?
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