Wilfried Nancy has backed Benjamin Nygren to keep getting better at Celtic – after revealing that he once tried to sign the midfielder for his former club.
The Swede notched two fine first-half goals in the during Saturday’s frantic 4-2 Premiership victory away at Livingston, taking his scoring tally to 10 for the season in all competitions.
Yang Hyun-jun and Arne Engels also got on the scoresheet for the visitors in West Lothian, who showed character to fight back from a frantic eight-minute period at the start of the game which saw them twice fall behind to strikes from Cristian Montano.
But it was Nygren – a summer signing from FC Nordsjaelland – who stood head and shoulders above the rest, much to his new manager’s delight.
‘When I was at Columbus Crew, I wanted to have him,’ said the Frenchman. ‘I know him really well, I know what he can do.
‘I think he has big potential and he hasn’t reached it yet. He is not a dribbler, but has the ability to make the runs for his team-mates with the technique that he has.
Swedish midfielder Benjamin Nygren scored twice in Celtic’s 4-2 victory over Livingston
Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy believes midfielder Nygren has ‘big potential’
Yang Hyun-Jun taps home Celtic’s second goal in their 4-2 win over Livingston
‘He knows he has to be stronger, he has to believe a bit more in himself.
‘I like what I’ve seen so far, but I will challenge him.’
Nancy has now celebrated back-to-back victories as Celtic manager, having suffered four defeats on the bounce after taking charge at the start of the month.
And the Frenchman insists that the players are now starting to get to grips with what he is asking of them.
‘It was good game, a difficult game to play,’ he said.
‘I really liked the competitive spirit we had, we came back twice from behind and after that we were able to score four goals.
‘We could have had more goals obviously but I liked what we did in the first half.
‘I liked the second half also, what I liked there was defensively we were strong, we didn’t concede.
‘Offensively we could have done better with the ball, we rushed sometimes and what happened it was a chaotic game in certain moments.
‘It has been only two weeks together but step by step I think they are starting to understand what I want.
‘They are doing it on the pitch and enjoying it.
‘I can see what I want to see with my players, the way to attack, how to attack and when to attack.
‘The spirit defensively and tactically. But sometimes it’s not about tactics, it’s about fight.
Livingston boss Martindale was not impressed with Matthew MacDermid’s penalty award for Celtic
‘This is something I like to see also.’
The defending champions are now just three points off league leaders Hearts with a game in hand, but Nancy’s focus is solely on his own team.
‘I don’t talk about this (other teams) with my players,’ he said. ‘My job is to analyse and see what we need to improve, do well.
‘The players among themselves talk about it so I don’t need to add something.’
Livingston boss David Martindale was less than impressed with Matthew MacDermid’s decision to award Celtic a crucial penalty shortly before the interval.
The ball did appear to strike the hand of defender Daniel Finlayson as he attempted to clear his lines, but Martindale felt that a nudge by Daizen Maeda made it almost impossible for the 24-year-old to get his hands out of the way in time.
‘I feel that it’s a really soft penalty,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to be sitting here talking about that, but where I am and where my head is at, I don’t think we get that in their box.
‘There’s enough in it not to be a penalty.’
He admitted: ‘I don’t think (we deserved to take anything) because we didn’t defend our 18-yard box well enough.
‘But there were a lot of positives within the game.’
