Expert gives Celtic fans key insight into how Julian Araujo could play vs Rangers

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There will be hope among many Celtic fans that Julian Araujo’s arrival will spark a win against Rangers in the Glasgow Derby.

Araujo signed for Celtic on loan as the Bournemouth defender looks for regular first-team football to save his World Cup dream.

Araujo hopes to get the call from Mexico for the big tournament, but lack of game time at the EPL club has threatened that this season.

The full-back has only been at the club for just under 48 hours and it looks like Araujo could be pitched into the Rangers game at Celtic Park this afternoon.

And as fans wonder what the Mexican can bring to the Celtic team, expert Oscar Mendoza has delivered some fascinating insight to Araujo’s defensive and attacking abilities.

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Mendoza is a football analyst for Fox One and Apuntes de Rabona and has told Celtic fans what to expect from their new January signing.

Mendoza said on X, “Julián Araujo would arrive at a Celtic who play with three centre-backs and wing-backs under the direction of Wilfried Nancy.

“Which would benefit him since he attacks better than he defends. When he played in the EPL, he showed deficiencies and became as low as the third option for RB for Iraola.

“But why not think that with a good semester in Scotland he could sneak into the World Cup, taking advantage of Huescas’ injury.

“His competition for the position would be the South Korean HyunJun Yang.”

New Celtic signing Julian Araujo’s stats

It was difficult to get recent comprehensive stats on Araujo from Fotmob simply because he’s barely played enough minutes over the last three years.

So to get a grasp of Mendoza’s comments, we went back to 2022, where Araujo made 40 appearances for LA Galaxy which was a decent sample size for the Mexican full-back.

• xG: 2.15
• xG on target: 1.51
• Expected assists: 4.18
• Touches in opposition box: 43
• Chances created: 38
• Duels won: 139
• Duels won %: 49.6%
• Aerial duels: 31
• Aerial duels %: 50.8%
• Tackles: 73

Another defender who doesn’t know how to defend is not what this Celtic team needs right now. Let’s hope Araujo can reverse that trend and find a balance between attacking and defending because Wilfried Nancy really needs that right now.