Celtic returned to the top of the Scottish Premiership table on Sunday as they travelled away from Glasgow to secure a 2-0 win against Kilmarnock.
Aberdeen’s 4-1 win over Dundee on Saturday had sent the Hoops down to second, temporarily, and goals from Callum McGregor and Nicolas Kuhn made sure that the Scottish giants lead the league heading into the final international break of the year.
The captain opened the scoring in the first half when his attempted cross went all the way in at the far post, before the German forward brilliantly burst down the right before slotting the ball into the bottom corner.
Despite the relatively comfortable victory and three points for Celtic, there were some underwhelming performers on the pitch for Brendan Rodgers, including Adam Idah.
Adam Idah’s difficult afternoon against Kilmarnock
The Ireland international got the nod to lead the line ahead of Kyogo Furuhashi and did not do enough to justify the manager’s selection of him from the start.
Idah struggled with the physicality of the game throughout, losing seven of his nine ground duels, and that made it relatively easy for opposition defenders to get the better of him.
Vs Kilmarnock | Adam Idah |
|---|---|
Minutes played | 63 |
Goals | 0 |
Big chances missed | 1 |
Pass accuracy | 71% |
Big chances created | 1 |
Duels won | 3/11 |
As you can see in the table above, the 6 foot 3 attacker also had a mixed afternoon in possession for the Hoops, creating one ‘big chance’ and missing one.
Daizen Maeda put in a cross that was slightly behind him early on and Idah could only prod it weakly towards goal, but quicker feet and better timing of his run could have seen him have a tap-in, whilst his pass across to Kuhn deserved an assist.
Arne Engels’ struggles against Kilmarnock
One player who was even worse than Idah, who did at least create a big opportunity for the German forward to score, was central midfielder Arne Engels.
During Sky Sports’ live coverage of the match, former Celtic striker Chris Sutton stated that the Belgium international “struggled” throughout the game and suggested that the artificial pitch may have caused him problems, as he may not have had to deal with them during his time in Germany.
Out of possession, Engels, who was handed a player rating of 5/10 by 67HailHail, rarely got involved in the game to break up Kilmarnock attacks or to win the ball back for his side, as he only won one of his three attempted duels.
His work on the ball was hardly much better, however, as the 21-year-old whiz lost possession 16 times and only completed 70% of his attempted passes, without creating a single chance for his teammates.
These statistics show that Engels struggled in all phases of the game and he was deservedly taken off with 27 minutes still to play, potentially due to his poor performance.
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