News Update:Celtic ruined by Rodgers’ disaster, who makes more than Palma.

The summer signing has struggled for playing time since moving to Parkhead.

Brendan Rodgers returned to Celtic Park last summer for a second stint as manager after Ange Postecoglou left.

The Hoops then chose to back the Northern Irish manager in the summer transfer window, adding nine new first-team players to strengthen the playing roster.

Maik Nawrocki, Hyeok-kyu Kwon, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Odin Thiago Holm, Marco Tilio, Luis Palma, Paulo Bernardo,

Nat Phillips, and Hyun-jun Yang were all brought in, with variable results.

Celtic were knocked out of the League Cup in August, eliminated from Europe at the end of the Champions League group stages, and are now two points behind their opponents at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Their troubles across many tournaments show that Rodgers’ efforts in the last transfer window have yet to bear fruit, as evidenced by the lack of minutes on the pitch for some of his recruits.

Lagerbielke, in particular, has been a disappointment for Celtic thus far. The Swedish defender has cost the club

millions of euros, earning more than first-team star Palma but making little contribution on the pitch.

Rodgers signed Gustaf Lagerbielke from IF Elfsborg for a rumored sum of roughly £3 million in August of last year, claiming that the youthful centre-back was “ready” for the Scottish challenge.

The 23-year-old colossus, who named former Hoops star Virgil van Dijk as an inspiration at the time of his signing, arrived after a successful first half of the season in Sweden.

He drew attention with his outstanding defensive performances for the team in 16 Allsvenskan games during the 2023 season.

Lagerbielke averaged 2.6 tackles and interceptions and 6.7 ball recoveries per game, with no errors that resulted in a

shooting or goal for the opposition. This shows that he was a reliable defender who consistently stopped attacks

without making major blunders.

The Swedish colossus was also dominant physically, winning 59% of his duels in those 16 games, after winning 64%

of his bouts in 20 league appearances for Elfsborg in 2022.

These data revealed that the Hoops had hired a tall defender capable of dominating opposing players with minimum errors to strengthen their backline.

However, it has not worked out for him at Parkhead this season, as the Sweden international has struggled for playing time under Rodgers.

Gustaf Lagerbielke’s Season in Numbers

The 23-year-old was an unused replacement for Celtic’s 4-2 home win over Livingston in the SFA Cup quarter-finals on Sunday, which sums up his season thus far.

He has not missed a single match for the Hoops in the 2023/24 season due to injury. However, Rodgers has left him out of the Premier League matchday squad 20 times.

Lagerbielke has made six league appearances for the Scottish giants since his £3 million signing.

The towering defender only started four of those six Premiership games, but he demonstrated some of his dominant

defensive abilities with an outstanding duel success rate of 71% and a ground duel success rate of 87%, which was

insufficient to persuade the manager that he deserved more minutes.

23/24 Champions League	Gustaf Lagerbielke
Appearances	2
Goals	1
Ground duel success rate	50%
Penalties committed	1
Red cards	1
Stats via Sofascore

As shown in the table above, Lagerbielke had mixed results in his two Champions League group stage matches versus Feyenoord.

On his European debut for the club, he conceded a penalty and was sent off, but he went on to score the winning goal in his second appearance against the Dutch.

Overall, the Swedish defender has been a waste of a Celtic purchase, since he has rarely been selected, even as a substitute, when fit to play, although earning more than Matt O’Riley and Palma.

Lagerbielke is currently earning £14k per week, which is higher than Palma’s £6k per week, Liam Scales’ £5k per week, and Maik Nawrocki’s £12k per week, to mention a few, and means he has earned more than £400k in his first 30 weeks at the club.

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