As Brendan Rodgers prepares his Celtic squad for the upcoming Champions League season, he has reportedly set his sights on Austrian centre-back Flavius Daniliuc.

The 23-year-old defender, who is gearing up to represent Austria in Euro 2024, could bring significant experience and skill to the Scottish giants.

Player Profile:

• Name: Flavius Daniliuc
• Age: 23
• Current Club: Salernitana (on loan at Red Bull Salzburg)
• Position: Centre-back
• Height: 6ft 2in
• Nationality: Austrian
• International Caps: 3

Career Journey:

Daniliuc’s journey in football has been diverse and international. Starting his youth career at Admira Wacker, a club with which Celtic has a partnership, he later moved through the ranks of notable clubs such as Rapid Wien, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich. Despite not making the first team at Bayern, his experiences across Europe’s top leagues have shaped him into a formidable defender. He moved to Nice in 2020, spent two years there, and then joined Salernitana, making 37 league appearances before his loan to Red Bull Salzburg.

Recent Performances:

During his loan at RB Salzburg last season, Daniliuc made 11 league appearances, starting ten of these games and even contributed an assist. His comfort with the ball is evident from his 84% pass accuracy, and puts his height to use to win 56.2% of aerial duels. Despite the physical nature of his play, he was disciplined enough to only pick up one booking.

Before his loan to Salzburg, Daniliuc played 14 matches in Serie A with Salernitana, starting eight. His performances in Italy echoed his reliability, echoing much of the same from Austria, with an 86% pass accuracy and strong defensive statistics including winning 57% of tackles and aerial duels.

Comparison to Scales and Carter-Vickers:

If Daniliuc joins Celtic, he is likely to partner with Carter-Vickers in defence. Comparatively, Carter-Vickers has a higher pass success rate (91%) and aerial duel win percentage (70%) in the SPFL, indicating that Daniliuc would be complementing a defender with superior passing and aerial abilities, but Carter-Vickers was playing in a league-winning team who dominated the ball.

Flavius Daniliuc’s arrival could mean replacing Liam Scales, whose performance metrics, though solid, fall short of Daniliuc’s, especially in terms of long-ball capabilities and overall defensive robustness.

In the Irishman’s 34 SPFL matches, he had a pass rate of 88%, although his long balls are significantly weaker than Flavius Daniliuc’s. His tackle success rate, which many say is the strongest part of his game, was just 62% and his ariel duels were just 61%. He was dribbled past 13 times and committed 8 fouls.

CeltsAreHere’s Thoughts:

Flavius Daniliuc appears to be a well-rounded defender with considerable experience in European football, even though he didn’t quite cut it at the top level with Bayern Munich and Madrid.

He played with a team who were eventually relegated in Italy and actually looked like a decent player for them. Lorenzo Pirola, Salernitana’s most-used central defender last season, has numbers very similar to Flavius Daniliuc. His passing accuracy is 83%, 58% his tackle success rate and 61% of his aerial duels.

Daniliuc’s ability to maintain high pass accuracy and strong defensive performances, even in challenging leagues, positions him as a valuable addition to Celtic’s squad, especially as they look to strengthen their backline for the demands of the Champions League.

He’s still a young player and stepping up to Celtic could be a good move for him. He’s a player that many will be keeping an eye on in the Euros which kick off this week.

All numbers from FotMob.