Summer Celtic signing Kasper Schmeichel must be enjoying himself at the start of the 2024/25 season.
Since arriving at the Bhoys on a one-year contract, with the option of another, he’s kept six clean sheets in his seven matches for club and country.
He’s conceded just a single goal – Mykola Kukharevych’s effort in the 3-1 Scottish League Cup victory over Hibernian at Celtic Park.
That trend continued on Sunday night with another shutout in a Denmark jersey as they beat Serbia 2-0 in Copenhagen.
The goalkeeper will soon be travelling back to Glasgow for another burst of club fixtures, having also helped his country to a 2-0 victory against Switzerland on Thursday night.
We’ve yet to even see the best of Kasper Schmeichel at Celtic
In truth, Schmeichel hasn’t had too much to do at the Bhoys quite yet. He made a couple of timely interceptions last week against Rangers but he hasn’t been seriously tested since touching down in Scotland.
That will change in the Champions League where teams will no doubt be far more threatening in Celtic’s box than their domestic challengers.
The value of Schmeichel will hopefully then become very clear. If he’s the upgrade on Joe Hart we all hope he can be then he could be a big difference-maker when it comes to winning points at that level.
Schmeichel’s distribution already helping out Bhoys
The goalkeeper has a 95.4% pass success rate in the Scottish Premiership so far this season, distributing at an elite level despite only just getting to know his Celtic backline.
Rodgers trusts the Dane to pass the ball around at the back and he has brought real stability to that task, with a high long-ball accuracy of 65% when needed, too – the best in the division.
If that also translates to European football and allows the Bhoys to play out from defence through opposition presses then he could be one of the keys to Celtic improvement in the Champions League.
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