Benkovic January Recall?

[OhYesNdidi]

17 minutes ago, mozartfox said:

It is too much ask? Like Celtic, we need an up-grade at CB and Benko will part of this.  Mags will go.  BTW we have wasted millions on duff transfers since 2016 and Benko appears to be one of notable successes that we have enjoyed. Which is the reason why he will be back with us next June.

 

I appreciate it must be tough for Celtic financially north of the border, seeing Leicester for example, listed in Forbes as 19th in the list of the Worlds Football Clubs, which is exactly why you missed out on Benkovic.

 

We are so very very lucky that the EPL remains massive around the World.  It may change one day!   So I would not hold your breath on another season with Benko as we need him too!!

 

Thanks for your postings - Top man!

 

Where’s Maguire going? I reckon he’ll stay

[Foxes1]

13 hours ago, sylofox said:

managed to piss off the celtic Faithfull again tonight. They hate it he's coming back to little Leicester at some point

They would do well to remember that we beat them in the Britain cup final of 2016 that put them firmly in their place below us.

 

 

[murphy]

2 hours ago, BenkovicCFC said:

Celtic fan here, thought I’d jump over and give folk an update on him from somebody who attends the games every week. The biggest compliment I can give him is he is just slightly, and I mean very slightly, below the level Van Dijk was when he was with us. He isn’t as laid back as him though and seems to be a complete leader at 21.

 

Always gets those around him to raise there level and it’s taken a hell of a lot of that responsibility off of Kieran Tierney. He can be a bit overconfident at times but I don’t mind that in a young defender, you know that will be ironed out his game. His cross field passing is exceptional, finds a player every time whether they are in space or no. 

 

Seen a few people saying he was shaky last night, he wasn’t, he was covering constantly for his partner Simunovic who is pretty much our 5th choice centre back and is one of the rashest players you’ll ever see. Fellow Croation and him and Benkovic are right pally, so think he may have went a bit overboard in doing so a few times but again, he’s young.

 

His timing of tackles is excellent, he’s commanding in the air, positioning is excellent. He has everything to go right to the top level. 

 

Seen folk saying Celtic fans think we’ll keep him? I’ve not met one who thinks that’s possible. Most of us think give him a year, 18 months at Leicester and Chelsea or something will be sticking in £60m odd bids.

 

The guy is top class.

Welcome to Foxes talk.  Thanks for the update, much appreciated.

[sylofox]

5 hours ago, BenkovicCFC said:

Celtic fan here, thought I’d jump over and give folk an update on him from somebody who attends the games every week. The biggest compliment I can give him is he is just slightly, and I mean very slightly, below the level Van Dijk was when he was with us. He isn’t as laid back as him though and seems to be a complete leader at 21.

 

Always gets those around him to raise there level and it’s taken a hell of a lot of that responsibility off of Kieran Tierney. He can be a bit overconfident at times but I don’t mind that in a young defender, you know that will be ironed out his game. His cross field passing is exceptional, finds a player every time whether they are in space or no. 

 

Seen a few people saying he was shaky last night, he wasn’t, he was covering constantly for his partner Simunovic who is pretty much our 5th choice centre back and is one of the rashest players you’ll ever see. Fellow Croation and him and Benkovic are right pally, so think he may have went a bit overboard in doing so a few times but again, he’s young.

 

His timing of tackles is excellent, he’s commanding in the air, positioning is excellent. He has everything to go right to the top level. 

 

Seen folk saying Celtic fans think we’ll keep him? I’ve not met one who thinks that’s possible. Most of us think give him a year, 18 months at Leicester and Chelsea or something will be sticking in £60m odd bids.

 

The guy is top class.

Shame a realist comes on her to set it straight. I understand as a club you are way bigger than us. But you don't have sky like we do. Just a shame so many of yours don't see that. Yes we mock your game and it's wrong. But let's be honest you could not afford him even if you tried. 

 

Just to match our fee you would be well above budget let alone match the fee you have now put on his head. 

 

Be nice if you could give us an idea of your top supposed wage. 

[Max Wall]

2 minutes ago, sylofox said:

Shame a realist comes on her to set it straight.

Bit sexist.

[BenkovicCFC]

On 14/12/2018 at 18:28, sylofox said:

Shame a realist comes on her to set it straight. I understand as a club you are way bigger than us. But you don't have sky like we do. Just a shame so many of yours don't see that. Yes we mock your game and it's wrong. But let's be honest you could not afford him even if you tried. 

 

Just to match our fee you would be well above budget let alone match the fee you have now put on his head. 

 

Be nice if you could give us an idea of your top supposed wage. 

We could afford the fee you dished out in the summer, it’d just be very unlikely that we ever would - £9m in the summer for Edouard is our transfer record. Think it was £13m for Benkovic you guys paid? 

 

Wages is a bit odd, it varies somewhere between £30k/£40k but we’re very heavily loaded towards bonuses. So the likes of Champions League qualification the bonuses go right up. So nobody really knows for sure. Our wage bill is a bit mental just now because our squad is massive.

 

Meh, I’m never too bothered with the league getting slagged, not like we don’t do it back, that’s just football.

 

Internet can be a bit mental, I personally don’t know anybody who thinks we can compete with Sky money and insanely rich owners bankrolling clubs, when it comes to us we need to get there before England does. Van Dijk’s the perfect example of that.

 

 

[mozartfox]

I read on Celtic Chat that your transfer budget for the January Window was UKP10m?  Not a great deal if you are looking for proven quality as opposed to finding another gem like VVD.

 

I hope ‘we’ spend nothing and just recall Barnes and Benkovic, as to buy these two at today’s fees would be north of 20m.

 

If Puel is sacked, any new man might bring them back.

[BenkovicCFC]

2 hours ago, mozartfox said:

I read on Celtic Chat that your transfer budget for the January Window was UKP10m?  Not a great deal if you are looking for proven quality as opposed to finding another gem like VVD.

 

I hope ‘we’ spend nothing and just recall Barnes and Benkovic, as to buy these two at today’s fees would be north of 20m.

 

If Puel is sacked, any new man might bring them back.

No idea how much we’ll spend, it’s all just guesswork. We know we have £45m sitting in the bank but we’ve been like that for a good few seasons and we’ve not really been spending. So who knows.

 

Is Puel near the sack? I thought he was doing ok? Nowhere near a few years ago but that was insane that 

[Nicolo Barella]

On 16/12/2018 at 16:21, BenkovicCFC said:

Is Puel near the sack?

Nah, lots of fans are mopey about the mopey football we've been playing though. If the owners didn't sack last season, I doubt they will this season. 

[Foxxed]

https://celticbynumberscom.ipage.com/the-benkovic-bind/

 

A writeup after 900 minutes from the 2nd of December by celticbythenumbers:

 

Quote

Having nearly completed 900 minutes, it’s time to evaluate Benkovic. In the 11 games he has made appearances, only Hibernian (2) and Leipzig (1) have scored. His partnership with Boyata looks solid.

 

As well as a huge physical presence, Benkovic exudes calmness that belies his tender years. In possession he is secure and averages 71.14 completed passes per 90m which is very similar to the other centre backs. Where he has an edge is that he only gives away the ball through his passes 2.83 time per 90m. This is the lowest lost pass rate in the whole squad (in truth Bain’s is lower but let’s compare to outfield players).

 

Remarkable, he completes the 4^th most pack passes (forward passes that take out at least one opponent) in the squad. Everyone is well behind Ntcham (9.54) but Benkovic manages 6.60 per 90m. His passing out from the back compliments the style Rodgers wants to play. He manages 7.12 packs per 90m meaning he is involved in more forward passing / dribbling event per 90m than any of the central defenders.

 

I measure Possession Effectiveness – whether on field actions result in possession being maintained or lost. Benkovic leads the squad with Brown in maintaining possession 93% of the time as a result of all his on field actions.

 

He has scored 1 goal for Celtic and is a consistent threat in the opposition box. His rate of 1.15 shots per 90m is higher than every other defender, even Tierney.

But we care mainly about his prowess as a defender. And here he is peerless in the squad with a Defensive Action Success Rate of 81%. The magic number here is getting over 80% which has only been achieved consistently by Van Dijk. The Dutchman is arguably one of the world’s premier defenders and thus a useful bench mark. As such this is a really instructive metric.

 

Benkovic wins 5.76 possessions back per 90m which is the best in the squad. He is a player of calm and controlled decision making. He does not commit to challenges unless he thinks the chances of success are high. Consequently, he has the lowest tackle and aerial challenge loss rates of 0.42 each per 90m within the squad.

 

His calmness does not mean he is not alert. His intercept rate of 3.56 per 90m is the highest in the squad. This all points to excellent decision making, especially for a young player.

Decision making is also key to not making errors. His defensive error rate of 0.21 per 90m is the lowest of the defenders apart from Tierney who doesn’t really defend much, at least domestically.

 

Unusually he also has the highest cross block rate of 0.63 per 90m of all players – even higher than the full backs.

 

All this points to a potentially serious defensive talent, but it is still a small sample. And those fretting that he is only on loan and will inevitably return to Leicester City (and be a success in my view), remember we have our own talent out injured who posts very similar numbers – Ajer.

 

[Foxxed]

For the "the SPL is a pub league" amongst you then you can see his 360 minutes of stats on whoscored: https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/103/Show/Scotland-Celtic (they don't include the SPL stats)

[Crispin LA]

He scores for Celtic! 

[egg_fried_rice]

his goal: https://streamable.com/xw0az

[Mehrez]

4 minutes ago, egg_fried_rice said:

his goal: https://streamable.com/xw0az

Can anyone translate the commentary, can’t understand a word 

[Haywood_6]

Scored for Celtic! Well done son. Can't wait to see him in the blue and white 

[mozartfox]

15 hours ago, Haywood_6 said:

Scored for Celtic! Well done son. Can't wait to see him in the blue and white 

He could be our new Huth.  We need a CB that can weigh in regularly with a goal or three.

[Nalis]

On 14/12/2018 at 15:06, Foxes1 said:

They would do well to remember that we beat them in the Britain cup final of 2016 that put them firmly in their place below us.

 

 

Forgot how awful that kit was

[Mark]

Injured again 

[Brainy]

Just gone off dead

[FoxFossil]

Had a stinker apparently before being subbed injured. Thats more like it!

[daverollo]

He looked very good on the ball. Couple of good clearances but also a couple of errors that showed some naivety 

[mozartfox]

4 hours ago, FoxFossil said:

Had a stinker apparently before being subbed injured. Thats more like it!

They all had stinkers,  much like us today.

[Bayfox]

49 minutes ago, mozartfox said:

They all had stinkers,  much like us today.

Yep. Celtic were shite. Scott Brown deflected 1 in. Could have scored an og.

 

So singling 1 player out would be wrong.

 

But have I mentioned Scott Brown was shite.

 

Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke. Sorry I meant ****.

[UniFox21]

Anyone worry about the few niggling injuries he's had? 

Achilles went due to the plastic pitch(?)

Hamstring strain from the weekend as well 

 

Could be the conditions he's playing in up there (pitches etc) 

[RumbleFox]

2 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

Anyone worry about the few niggling injuries he's had? 

Achilles went due to the plastic pitch(?)

Hamstring strain from the weekend as well 

 

Could be the conditions he's playing in up there (pitches etc) 

It's not some 3rd world shite hole up here you know.  We even have cars and the internet these days.  X