Midtjylland’s goalkeeping situation is even worse than Celtic’s

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FC Midtjylland may have kicked off pre-season preparations with an impressive win, but their goalkeeping crises appears to be even worse than at Celtic.

Whilst the Hoops still have three senior goalkeepers fighting for Ange Postecoglou’s attention this summer, Midtjylland appear to be all over the place.

The Danes have just come off of a hectic period in which three of their goalkeepers left the club. Experienced stopper Jesper Hansen left along with Mikkel Andersen and Oliver Ottesen. Hensen in particular was a big loss. Before the second half of last season, he was the number one at Midtjylland for the previous three years.

He was ousted by new number one Jonas Lottl back in March. However, Midtjylland’s top stopper is currently away with Denmark for Euro 2020. Even if he is back in time for the UCL second qualifying round against Celtic on July 20th, he won’t have much time to work with new manager Bo Henriksen. Pre-season prep will be extremely sparse with him set to miss all of the pre-season matches.

Lottl hasn’t played a single minute for Denmark at Euro 2020 either. Celtic, therefore, could be up against a goalkeeper that hasn’t played a competitive game for two months.

FC Midtjylland’s goalkeeping struggles a big issue ahead of Celtic tie

The Danes have yet to find a serious solution. In their first pre-season match against Malmo, they were forced to play Elias Olafsson. A player deemed not good enough and who was shipped on loan to the second tier last season and hasn’t played a single game for Midtjylland at senior level.

As for their youth ranks, their under-19 stopper Valdemar Birsko is currently sidelined with a serious injury. It’s highly doubtful he’ll be making the Celtic game either.

Midtjylland are finding themselves desperately scrambling for more goalkeeping options. They’ve moved to bring in former Chelsea academy youngster Jared Kyle Thompson for a trial. He’ll likely play for the club in their upcoming friendly matches against Lech Poznan and Sigma Olomouc.

But Thompson hasn’t played a senior game of football since March 2019. Even that came back in his homeland of Northern Ireland with Warrenpoint. Midtjylland currently look all over the place when it comes to their goalkeeping options.

Celtic fans can get a glimpse of our European rivals twice this week for absolutely free. The Danish club will stream both of their matches on YouTube. Midtjylland are set for games on July 7th and 10th – the same days Celtic are in action against Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton respectively.

So Celtic and their supporters will get a chance to look at the club’s current goalkeeping options this week. But make no mistake about it, our Euro rivals aren’t where they’d want to be when it comes to their number one.

In other news, why July is a big month for Conor Hazard’s Celtic career.