This Saturday, at Hampden Park, is the season’s last match, and Celtic are getting ready to play their closest competitors in the SFA Cup final.
The Hoops won the Scottish Premiership last weekend, allowing them to finish the 2023–24 campaign with a second trophy and a domestic double.
On the last day of the league season at Parkhead, Brendan Rodgers and his team defeated St Mirren 3-2 after winning 5-0 against Kilmarnock away from home the previous week to capture the trophy.
The Northern Irish coach will now be looking for his team to put on yet another strong display this weekend at Hampden Park as they play Rangers in the championship.
Following that crucial match, all eyes will be on the summer transfer window, and the team will undoubtedly need to get a new first-choice goalkeeper.
The Scottish powerhouses will require a number one goalie before the 2024–25 season since Joe Hart is scheduled to retire at the age of 37 when his contract expires this summer.
Austrian talent is being courted by Celtic. The Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Patrick Pentz is reportedly close to signing a contract with the Hoops to join Parkhead this summer, according Football Insider.
With only one year remaining on his contract with the German team—who recently finished an undefeated Bundesliga season—the Austrian goalie may present the Bhoys with an opportunity to steal his services, according to the report.
It says that the 27-year-old star has shown himself to be a’strong’ candidate that the Scottish powerhouses should consider adding to strengthen their goalkeeping options in time for the upcoming season.
According to Football Insider, Rodgers’ main ambition for the upcoming summer transfer window is to find a new goalkeeper to replace Hart. Pentz is reportedly one of the top targets for that role.
The gifted giant, who recently finished the season on loan with Brondby in Denmark, is reportedly the target of Southampton and PSV, so it might not be an easy transaction to close.
If the Saints are still interested in signing Pentz, they could be in a stronger position to negotiate after they face Southampton in the Championship play-off final on Sunday.
They could also be promoted to the Premier League. In the event that Celtic prevails in the competition for his services, however, the team may acquire a goalkeeper who would be ideal for Rodgers’ style of play going ahead.
Why Brendan Rodgers would be terrific with Patrick Pentz According to a report from Football Insider, the Hoops manager saw the Leverkusen star’s skill with the ball at his feet and wants his number one to be able to play out from the back.
According to the article, Pentz is a “modern” goalkeeper, and he proved as much this season while on loan at Brondby in Denmark.
He made 25 appearances in the Superliga, finishing 91% of his passes inside his own half without committing a single mistake that would have given the opponent a clear opportunity to score.
In fact, his last mistake that resulted in a goal or shot at the league level dates back to the 2020–21 Austrian Bundesliga season, when he was a member of Austria Wien.
The 27-year-old player has only made one direct error in the last four campaigns combined, as you can see in the table above, and has not made one in the previous three seasons.
In contrast, during Hart’s three years at Parkhead and 109 Scottish Premiership matches, he committed five mistakes that resulted in shots for the opponent and one that ended in a goal.
Given the higher number of mistakes made while passing the ball to the opposition during the previous three seasons, it appears that the 37-year-old veteran is significantly more likely to make a mistake when playing out of the back than Pentz.
Rodgers’ preferred method of building from the back would therefore benefit greatly from the Leverkusen gem, as the Austrian’s high pass success rate within his own half and consistency with the ball in hand show.
Patrick Pentz’s superiority over Joe Hart and why Pentz is an excellent goalie who can control his area and stop shots, which makes him a potential upgrade over Hart in addition to his remarkable job on the ball.
First off, the Englishman finished in the bottom 22% of goalkeepers in the Champions League this season with just 1.2%, whereas the Austrian giant was among the top 23% of his positional counterparts in Ligue 1 last season for percentage of crosses stopped (7.8%).
This implies that Pentz, who Leverkusen manager Simon Rolfes declared to be “in his prime” last year, may be significantly more proficient at gathering crosses to relieve strain on his defense.
The Brondby loanee excelled Hart as a shot-stopper as well, as the above table shows. He had a high save success rate and was perfect in his duels against opposing players, while the Hoops star fell short in that regard.
These numbers, together with his previously noted fit for Rodgers’ preferred style of play, indicate that the Bhoys target might make a great addition to the team going forward to take the position of the former Manchester City titan.
Another crucial element for Celtic is his age. Another reason this may be a great deal for the club is that, at 27, he is ten years younger than the retiring ace and could be Celtic’s number one for many more years to come if he can settle in quickly and adjust to Scottish football.
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