Celtic dropped down to second in the Scottish Premiership table on Saturday afternoon as they were held to a drab 0-0 draw by Hibernian at Parkhead.
The Hoops have dropped points in two of their six matches in the top-flight so far this season, and they now sit two points behind Hearts in the table.
Brendan Rodgers made a few changes to the starting line-up to freshen things up after the 1-1 draw with Red Star Belgrade in the Europa League on Thursday night, but the players coming in did not push their case forward to keep a starting berth. Arne Engels was one of those players who did not take their chance.
Why Arne Engels should be dropped by Celtic
The Belgium international was brought into the central midfield mix to replace Benjamin Nygren, who dropped to the bench, but produced an underwhelming performance in the middle of the park.
Engels, who was signed for £11m from Augsburg last summer, was substituted in the 68th minute of the match after failing to register a shot on target or a ‘big chance’ created, per Sofascore.
The 22-year-old flop lost possession of the ball 18 times and only created two chances, neither of which were ‘big chances’, before Rodgers decided to haul him off for the last 20 minutes.
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Engels should, therefore, be dropped from the starting line-up after he failed to take his chance to impress. However, the Belgian was not the only underperformer for the Hoops, as Kelechi Iheanacho was even worse than him.
Why Celtic should drop Kelechi Iheanacho
The Nigeria international was brought into the starting line-up to replace Daizen Maeda in the number nine position after he came off the bench to score in the draw with Red Star Belgrade.
As you can see in the clip above, the former Sevilla striker did brilliantly to take the ball under control and find the top corner between two defenders to put the Hoops ahead in that match.
Unfortunately, the left-footed attacker was unable to follow that up with an impressive performance from the start against Hibernian, as he wasted several chances to find the back of the net.
Minutes
67
Shots
4
Shots on target
1
Big chances missed
2
Passes completed
9/10
Key passes
1
Big chances created
0
As you can see in the table above, Iheanacho spurned the two big chances that he had, one of which was a tap in that he struck the crossbar with from close range.
The worst part of his performance was that the one chance that he did take, finding the back of the net with a nice finish, was offside because he mistimed his run across the front post.
Along with his poor play in front of goal, Iheanacho also lost 100% of his duels (1/1), per Sofascore, which shows that he did not compete with and make it hard for the Hibs defenders.
This is why he was even worse than Engels, who won more duels (two), created more chances (two), and missed fewer ‘big chances’ (one) than the striker, per Sofascore.
Both of Iheanacho’s goals for Celtic so far have come as a substitute. This, perhaps, suggests that coming off the bench to make an impact should be his role for now, which is why he must be ditched from the starting XI against Braga.