Arne Engels LOVED mega Celtic workload as £11m man insists three games a week hasn't been difficult

The midfielder has had to rapidly adjust to the pressure of all competitions - and winning every clash

Brendan Rodgers reckons Arne Engels’ old club was football’s equivalent of a holiday camp. But the Celtic star insists he’s loving life at the gruelling Parkhead coalface.

At former side Augsburg, Engels had plenty of time to put his feet up with the Bundesliga outfit operating on a one-game-a-week schedule. But the Belgian baller’s rota has been far busier since switching to Celtic Park last summer.

The £11million recruit was on duty just 33 times last term after the Fuggerstadters missed out on Europe. But having joined a team that was competing on three fronts domestically as well as in the Champions League, he’s already racked up 42 Hoops appearances - with another 11 games still potentially remaining for Rodgers’ Treble-chasers.

The hectic workload should slow now, though, following Celtic’s exit from Uefa’s top tournament. But Engels has no problem carrying out the overtime he’s been asked to cover since moving to Scotland.

Asked if he was looking forward to having a little more time off with Celtic now back to playing weekends only for the foreseeable, the 21-year-old said: “Yeah of course it's nice, we can prepare every game a little bit more.

“So it's always nice to have some training days and also relax a bit, not always to go 100 percent the next day or two days later.

“It's nice to have just a week in between and that helps us also to get the energy back and that's what you see also on Sunday against Hibs.

“But I actually loved playing three games a week because you're just in a mindset to win and to go every three days and you know that the next game is already there.

“I think we did really well in those months. So yeah, I loved every single game of it and it was not really something difficult to add to my game.”

Celtic certainly needed that extra freshness in their legs to see off David Gray’s resurgent Hibs side during their Scottish Cup quarter-final tie at the weekend.

The Leith side and their army of 7000 travelling supporters marched on Glasgow’s East End high in confidence looking to add to a 15-game unbeaten run.

While they didn’t offer much going forward, the Easter Road side did their best to slow Celtic’s own momentum. But goals from Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah eventually saw Rodgers’ team take another huge step towards an astonishing sixth treble in nine years as they clinched a semi-final slot.

Asked if the free midweek had helped, Engels said: “Yeah 100 percent I think we always want to start fast, especially here at home.

“I think the crowd also helps a lot to push forward and that's what we did. I think the first 20 minutes were really good from us, we created a lot, we had a lot of ball possession and that gave us also a lot of confidence I think. So yeah I think we did really well there in the first half.

“We’re pleased to be through to another semi-final. That was the objective on Sunday and we did it really well, we created a lot.

“I think defensively we were also strong so it was a really good performance I think from the whole team.”

Hibs got Celtic cold when they’d met a fortnight earlier, with Josh Campbell’s second-minute strike sending Gray’s side on their way to a 2-1 Premiership win at Easter Road. But there was never likely to be a repeat of that as Rodgers’ team dominated from start to finish.

“I think we had something to show from the last game andI think we did really well on Sunday of course,” said Engels.

“It's a good side so we knew that it was not going to be easy but I think everybody was there at the weekend and everybody performed really well. So I'm really pleased with the result actually.”

Celtic have been going flat out all season. But the finish line is now in sight in both of their two remaining competitions.

Follow up a victory against Rangers in next week’s Old Firm clash with two more against Hearts and St Johnstone and the club will wrap up a fourth successive league crown with six Premiership games to spare. That would leave them with a two-game push in the top six to complete yet another clean sweep.

“I think we have just the mentality of winning every game and that's what we did already the whole year and what we are going to do now the next weeks,” added Engels.

“Just going into every game with our winning mentality and with a lot of energy and that made us already doing really good results and doing really good performance.

“I think that we just need to keep on going like this and not look too much forward or something.

“We need to look just to the next game and go from there with full energy and full focus. So yeah, we are ready.”