Celtic moved a staggering 16 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership table on Tuesday night when they swept Aberdeen aside with a 5-1 win at Parkhead.
The Hoops scored three of their goals in the opening 45 minutes as Jota, Daizen Maeda, and Callum McGregor all found the back of the net to establish a dominant lead.
Second-half substitute Hyun-jun Yang added the fourth after the break when he combined with several teammates before finding the bottom corner of the near post, whilst Maeda added a second in the 92nd minute.
Brendan Rodgers may not be pleased with all aspects of his side’s performance, as Aberdeen missed several presentable opportunities to score before their 90th-minute consolation, but there were some great individual showings on display.
Maeda was selected to start the game as the lone centre-forward and the Japan international caught the eye with an impressive evening at Parkhead.
Daizen Maeda's performance against Aberdeen
Rodgers dropped Ireland international and recognised striker Adam Idah down to the bench in order to move Maeda into the middle to start as the number nine, and it was a decision that paid off early on.
The Japanese forward was first to react to a huge deflection in the box and was sharp to get to the ball before the centre-back, whilst also showing his quality with a deft, first-time, finish with the ball dropping out of the sky.
As you would expect with Maeda, the 27-year-old forward also covered plenty of ground and put hard work in for his side out of possession to win the ball back.
The Japan international won five of his ten ground duels and ended the evening with two tackles and one interception to his name, which illustrates how hard he worked to prevent Aberdeen from playing out from the back.
Maeda, of course, was then on hand at the back post in the 92nd minute to tap the ball into an empty net from Alistair Johnston’s brilliant cross from the right flank.
The Celtic star did not create any chances for his teammates, though, and that may be an area of his game that he will look to improve upon next time out, to add to his ruthless nature in front of goal.
Chalkboard
Despite his impressive showing against Aberdeen on Tuesday night, Rodgers has unearthed a superstar at Parkhead, and it is not the Japanese forward – it is Arne Engels.
Arne Engels' performance against Aberdeen
The Belgian sensation lined up alongside Reo Hatate and club captain Callum McGregor in the middle of the park and ran the show for the Hoops with his performance.
Aberdeen, quite simply, could not get anywhere near Engels on the ball and they struggled to get the better of him when they had possession, as he was dominant with and without the ball throughout the 90 minutes.
Chris Sutton, speaking on Sky Sports’ live coverage of the match, called Engels “the best player on the park” in the 76th minute of the game, which shows how impressed the former Hoops forward was with the midfielder’s display.
His influence on the match was illustrated by his 77 touches of the ball in total, which was more than Jota (42), Maeda (44), and Nicolas Kuhn (41) managed – showing that he was constantly looking to make things happen.
Minutes
90
Pass accuracy
89%
Key passes
6
Assists
2
Duels won
6/8
Tackles
3
As you can see in the table above, the Belgium international dominated Aberdeen from a physical perspective, winning six of his eight duels, whilst he was also incredibly creative and directly assisted two of the five goals.
It was Engels’ deflected pass that teed up Maeda for the opener before he set up Jota for a tap-in and bundled the ball to McGregor for the third strike. The impressive midfielder also played a one-two with Yang on the edge of the box in the build-up to the fourth goal.
Why Arne Engels is Celtic's new superstar
Celtic smashed their record transfer fee to sign the central midfielder from Bundesliga side Augsburg in the summer transfer window, reportedly paying £11m for his services.
It would be fair to expect big things from a player signed for that kind of money by Celtic and that is exactly what they have got, as Engels has racked up nine goals and 12 assists from a central midfield position in all competitions for the Scottish giants this season.
The 21-year-old talent has shown that he has the ability to score and assist goals on a regular basis in Scotland, as further evidenced by his two assists against Aberdeen at Parkhead this week.
However, the big test for Engels was whether he could immediately step up to be a star in the Champions League. He started nine of the club’s ten matches in the competition and contributed with one goal and three assists, starring for the Hoops to help them reach the play-off round.
Assists
0.37
Top 8%
Expected Assisted Goals
0.25
Top 10%
Non-penalty xG + xAG
0.34
Top 19%
Shot-creating actions
3.11
Top 34%
Touches in opposition penalty box
1.74
Top 36%
As you can see in the table above, the Belgian dynamo ranked incredibly highly among his positional peers in the competition in a host of creative and attacking statistics.
The all-action midfielder, who also won 59% of his duels in the Champions League, proved that he has the quality to influence matches at that level, whilst also doing it week-in-week-out in the Premiership, with his quality in possession to make a difference in the final third as well as his ability to cover ground and make challenges to win the ball back for the Hoops.
At the age of 21, Engels has the world at his feet and Rodgers appears to have unearthed the club’s new superstar for many more years to come.
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