Oliver Sørensen backed as Celtic’s answer to Arne Engels void | OneFootball

Scott Brown believes Celtic have an issue to solve in midfield – and has backed Oliver Sørensen to provide Martin O’Neill with the answer.

9th September 2026; McDiarmid Park, Perth, Scotland: Scottish Premiership Football, St Johnstone versus Celtic; Oliver Sorensen of Celtic and Jason Holt of St Johnstone challenge for the ball

The Hoops’ midfield came under scrutiny following Sunday’s 3-0 Premier Sports Cup defeat to Rangers at Ibrox, with Callum McGregor, Mika Baur and Benjamin Nygren struggling to impose themselves.

Former Celtic captain Brown believes the summer departure of Arne Engels has left a significant void, particularly because of the Belgian’s ability to support McGregor defensively and provide physicality in the middle of the park.

However, Brown has seen enough from Parma loanee Sørensen to believe the Dane could eventually fill that role.

Sørensen has made just one Premiership start since arriving at Celtic and remained an unused substitute at Ibrox, but Brown hopes the 24-year-old will now be handed further opportunities.

He said via The Herald: “I thought Engels was that. Engels was really good at that. Engels was a box-to-box midfielder, he helped Cal in there and dropped in.

“Nygren drops in at times, Baur will drop in at times as well, but they’ve not got that physicality of what Engels or Victor Wanyama’s got.

“But Sorensen’s got the physicality. I’ve not seen enough of his legs back to front, if I’m honest, and he’s just in the door. Hopefully he can manage to be the difference between that physicality.

“But also I can see Sorensen’s got a fantastic range of passing and looks forward, plays lovely passes, so hopefully he can add that part to his game.”

Celtic now turn their attention to Thursday night’s Europa League opener against Ferencvaros at Parkhead, where O’Neill’s side will be looking for an immediate response to their derby disappointment.

After Celtic’s dramatic Champions League play-off exit to LASK last month, Brown believes a strong Europa League campaign is particularly important.

He said: “Yes, very important. I think they have to believe that they can go on a good run in Europe.

“Have they got a Champions League squad to deal with top teams? Probably not at this moment in time.

‌”But the players that came in are going to make them stronger. They’re going to make them more competitive in Europe.

“I think it’s a right good start for Celtic to go into the Europa League at this point in time and to see how well they can go on do and how well they can compete.

“Because there are big, big teams in that, so there’s a lot of money involved in it as well, so hopefully that brings revenue into the club as well, so they can see where that goes down.”

“At the end of the day, it’s a European game. Hopefully, we can be up for the game and be ready for the game and then after that, you can concentrate then on Sunday.”

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