What can Celtic expect from Moritz Jenz?

In basketball, pundits and commentators often use a stat-line to reflect what a player can reasonably be expected to bring to the table.

This usually includes per-game or per-36-minute averages for points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks... you get the picture.

This is more difficult to do in football. There are more players for a start, so it's less individualistic by nature. It is also a low-scoring sport in which team style often has a tangible effect on a player's output; by contrast, even in a defensive basketball team, a lot of points are needed. 

But let's give it a try anyway.

With Moritz Jenz, Celtic are picking up a 6ft 3in central defender. He is not, despite numerous reports to the contrary, left-footed though it should be noted he seems quite comfortable using that foot a fair amount in any case.

Indeed, his minutes splits since beginning his senior career (i.e. when he played in Premier League 2 for Fulham alongside Matt O'Riley doesn't count) reflect someone capable of playing on either side of the central-defensive partnership.

He has so far spent 26.2 per cent of his minutes at left centre-back, 36 per cent at centre-back (he's played in a back three a lot) and 37.6 per cent at right centre-back. He's also featured at right-back 0.25 per cent of the time.

So without any more context let's get to this stat-line I promised you. So far the average Jenz 90-minute performance consists of the following:

– 41.3 passes attempted (87.4 per cent success; 36 accurate passes per 90); 5.6 long passes attempted (52 per cent success); 0.6 progressive runs; 9 duels won (62.1 per cent overall duel success rate); 2.5 aerial duels won (62.2 per cent overall aerial success rate); 5.1 interceptions; 10.5 recoveries; 3.4 clearances; 1.07 fouls conceded.

What does that tell us? Well for fans craving the signature of a dominant, left-footed, left-sided ball-playing centre-back this probably isn't the droid you're looking for... on the face of it.

But as I said: team style can impact how a player is perceived, even when it’s through the medium of data.

It’s worth considering that in his senior career Jenz has played firstly for Lausanne-Sport in the Swiss Super League – who garnered a mid-table sixth-place finish – and FC Lorient in French Ligue 1, who placed 16th in a 20-team division. He’s never really been in the position of responsibility that being a Celtic centre-back carries with it.

Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt – the latter of whom certainly had his own problems adjusting to those demands – are both regularly among the most common passing combinations in any given match with Celtic dominating possession to the tune of 67.3 per cent on average domestically.

The Hoops ally this with pressing high up the pitch too – their passes per defensive action (a metric that assesses a team's pressing capabilities) – was 6.8 in the league last season. For reference, you want that PPDA number to be as low as possible.

Lausanne-Sport, by contrast, didn’t even have the ball half the time during the season Jenz was there (49 per cent on average, fifth-worst in the division) and unsurprisingly didn’t press effectively either (12.7 PPDA, fourth-worst in the league). FC Lorient’s 44.8 per cent possession (15th in Ligue 1) and 14.6 PPDA (third-worst) make for harsher reading.

Suffice to say, then, it will be a considerable adjustment in team style facing Jenz at Parkhead. 

However, his self-proclaimed outlook on the game offers more than a glimmer of hope that he will embrace the challenge in Glasgow.

“I don’t see myself as a classic central defender who tries to ruin the game," he said. "I see myself more as the first line of attack and a player who builds up play.

"I love having the game in front of me, dictating what pace we go at. I also try to learn a lot from my role models Jerome Boateng and Leonardo Bonucci."

At Celtic, he'll fly or fall by his ability to live up to those words. Perhaps he just hasn't found the right team to allow that side of his game to truly develop yet.

In any case, the club's season-long loan deal with an option to buy means there is a buffer there for the Parkhead side as there was with Carter-Vickers and Jota last summer.

Consider it a taster, if you will. And in that sense, it seems bringing in Jenz will largely have to be a case of suck it and see.

This piece is an extract from today’s Celtic Digest newsletter, which is emailed out at 4pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from The Celtic Way team. 

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