Jonjoe Kenny played his fourth consecutive game for Celtic since making the loan move from Everton and recorded his fourth win.
Celtic have scored 12 goals and conceded 2 in that time.
The defender’s inclusion in the side has coincided with a good run of results. Is it a coincidence we have been better with him in the team or does he give Celtic something they’ve not had this season.
As much as Jeremie Frimpong had explosive pace, his defensive nativity was a bag issue at times and when Jeremie wasn’t doing the business in the final third, he was an empty jersey this term. Jonjoe appears to have added balance to this Celtic side and should give James Forrest a good base when he gets back into the team in the coming weeks.
Kenny’s passing accuracy over his first four Celtic games is high at 82.9%. He’s won 60% of defensive duels and just over half of his aerial duels at 54.5%.
The Everton star does come high up the field and is able to recover his position well for the most part, he has a dribble success rate of 50%.
You can see from his heat map, he tapers off in the final third but is where you’d expect him to be up and down the pitch.
Jeremie Frimpong had a much higher dribble success rate but Jonjoe leads in tackles aerial duals. In essence, Jonjoe’s data backs up how it looks so far – the team have lost the pace and attacking prowess of Frimpong and replaced him with more of a conventional right-back who is more about defending than going forward.
The more Jonjoe plays for Celtic, the more effective he could become in the final third, after four games, it’s a steady and winning start for the defender.
It’s too soon to talk about a permanent deal but the player is entering the final 12 months of his deal. If whoever is in charge come the summer fancies the player, there could be a deal to be done.
