{"id":654418,"date":"2025-05-06T05:33:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T09:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=654418"},"modified":"2025-05-06T05:33:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T09:33:24","slug":"paulo-bernardo-expense-of-engels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/05\/06\/paulo-bernardo-expense-of-engels\/","title":{"rendered":"Paulo Bernardo Deserves a Run: Even if It\u2019s at the Expense of Engels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paulo Bernardo has found game time somewhat hard to come by in this Celtic team, especially since suffering an ankle injury at the turn of the year. Nevertheless, the midfielder is excited to get back into the swing of things. <\/span>“I can play football again so I’m <\/span>really<\/span> excited for the coming weeks.”\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Paulo Bernardo Deserves A Run In Celtic Team<\/h3>\n

Celtic Career To Date<\/h3>\n

Bernardo enjoyed a successful loan spell last season in the East End of Glasgow, with a derby day goal and assist, plus he played a major role in Adam Idah’s late Scottish Cup final strike against Rangers. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for Brendan Rodgers to sign him permanently for a fee of \u00a33.5 million.<\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>Paulo Bernardo Excels Early in Season<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, this season he has found game time at a premium. Even before the injury, he was consistently playing second fiddle to record signing Arne Engels, despite his performances being just as good if not better.<\/p>\n

What This Means For Engels<\/h3>\n

It’s a tough dilemma for Rodgers, who will look to protect his players in the public eye. The \u00a311 million price tag on Engels means that any sustained period on the bench will inevitably cause a stir. Moreover, the Belgian has just won the Young Player of the Year award for Celtic. Yet, he splits opinion in the fanbase.<\/p>\n

Domestically, his performances have often underwhelmed. Against low blocks, he often fails to have the intelligence of movement to influence the game. In 51 appearances, he has managed just two non-penalty goals. However you put it, that isn’t ideal for a central midfielder. Of course, he is a different style of player to Matt O’Riley, who he was bought to replace. Yet, that output is worrying.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Intelligent James Forrest Still Has A Lot To Give This Celtic Side<\/a><\/p>\n

The German style of football, which he played at Augsburg, is still his strength. When the game opens up, his performances have been as good as anyone in the Celtic midfield. The twenty-one-year-old excelled away to Bayern Munich and Aston Villa, plus at home against Leipzig. In a 1-1 draw against Rangers, he was dampened by an in-game gameplan change by the home side.<\/p>\n

When the game was more open in the early stages until Rangers took the lead, Engels found space in the midfield and was able to show off his physicality and long-range passing. In the early stages, everything came through him. Yet, as Rangers tightened up at the back, Engels failed to find the space and influence the game. He was subsequently substituted in the 63rd minute.<\/p>\n

Future Planning<\/h3>\n

Moreover, the Celtic midfield will likely be going through a transitional period in the coming terms. Callum McGregor turns 32 this year, and while he is the ultimate professional, in the coming seasons, the amount of minutes he plays will naturally decline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Why Celtic Will Break Goal Scoring Record This Season<\/a><\/p>\n

Additionally, links around Reo Hatate’s future continue to swirl<\/span> each transfer window<\/span><\/a>. The 27-year-old is approaching his fifth season as a Celtic player, and history tells you that the board may be looking to cash in on his services.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hatate is integral to the way <\/span>the Bhoys<\/span> play. He dictates the pace of the game, <\/span>he<\/span> creates spaces for others and owns incredible vision. The Champions’ style is likely to change anyway next campaign, with the arrival of Kieran Tierney, but it will also be an opportunity for Bernardo to impress.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Deserved Place<\/h3>\n

It would be deserved. He stepped in earlier this season and excelled after O’Riley headed down south. His off-the-ball work often goes unnoticed but is unmatched by anyone else in the midfield. Plus, he has shown adaptability in his time at Celtic. Last season, he played a more advanced role as a goalscoring attacking midfielder and succeeded. This time around, while predominantly playing as an eight, he has dropped into the six on occasion and been equally adept.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Will Brendan Rodgers Extend His Contract at Celtic<\/a><\/p>\n

All of this points to someone with a football brain. He rarely loses the ball, but not in the manner that many of his passes are square and provide the team little in an attacking sense. Instead, his body positioning is spot on, making it nearly impossible to tackle him without fouling.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see whether he plays a major role between now and the cup final. With the league wrapped up, rotation was always likely anyway. Either way, you would expect him to be an integral part next season and onwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paulo Bernardo has found game time somewhat hard to come by in this Celtic team, especially since suffering an ankle injury at the turn of the year. Nevertheless, the midfielder is excited to get back into the swing of things. “I can play football again so I’m really excited for the coming weeks.”\u00a0 Paulo Bernardo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4404,"featured_media":654449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8428,8427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtic","category-scottish-premiership"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654418"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654450,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654418\/revisions\/654450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}