Celtic

Celtic: Oliver Abildgaard criticised for friendly showing

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Image for Celtic: Oliver Abildgaard criticised for friendly showing

Celtic midfielder Oliver Abildgaard has been criticised for his showing in the side’s 2-1 friendly defeat at the hands of Sydney FC. 

The Dane came under the spotlight in journalist Graeme McGarry’s post-match debrief from the clash in Australia. 

Abildgaard was substituted at half-time by manager Ange Postecoglou, in what turned out to be a disappointing performance for the Scottish champions.

The 26-year-old joined the Glasgow giants at the beginning of the campaign on a season-long loan deal from Rubin Kazan, but has struggled to make an impact as of yet and has been something of a flop.

And McGarry, whilst acknowledging that his lack of playing time would be a factor, was heavily critical of Abildgaard’s performance against Sydney FC. 

He wrote: “The Dane has struggled to make any sort of impact at Celtic so far, and is stuck in something of a vicious circle.

“Without regular game time, he will struggle to get up to full speed, but with his current level of performance, he stands next to no chance of consistently getting into this Celtic team.

“So, there is a considerable caveat to be added when judging his showing here, but to describe it as underwhelming would be doing the midfielder a favour.

“He struggled to get any sort of grip on proceedings, was often wasteful in possession and justifiably looked a fair bit off the pace.

“It was no surprise to see him hooked at half-time, and it is difficult to see at the moment how he is going to make much of an impact on this Celtic team.”

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TIF Thoughts on McGarry’s comments…

We believe that it looks like Abildgaard is only going to have a limited impact for Postecoglou’s side this season, judging by the fact he has only played in 8% of possible Premiership minutes this season, and not started one game in the club’s defence of their title, according to Transfermarkt.

As well as this, on the rare opportunity that the former Aalborg man has had to impress, he clearly hasn’t given the Australian manager a reason to make him a regular in his side, suggesting that the club are unlikely to pursue a deal to sign the Dane permanently at the end of his loan spell.

Therefore, we struggle to foresee a situation in which Abildgaard becomes a regular in this Celtic side before the end of the campaign.

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