Flavio Nazinho Benchmarking

As the rumor hamster wheel keeps cranking, I am allocating more time to continue tracking and analyzing all of the more credible rumors, as well as the signings at Rangers and Hearts.

Flavio Nazinho is a left sided player who played the past two seasons at Cercle Brugge after coming up through Sporting’s system in Portugal. He spent the first season on loan and then was acquired for about €1 million last summer per Transfermkt.

He will turn 22 next week and was utilized primarily as a left back and left wingback at Cercle Brugge, but also some at wide midfield.

Cercle Brugge deployed 3-4-3 and 4-2-3-1 as the two most common formations in possession during the 2024-2025 season, per Wyscout. They finished second of four teams in the relegation playoff group in the Belgian top flight’s fragmented playoff system for the 2024-2025 season.

The team was 11th in possession at 47.5%, had the lowest passes per minute of possession in the league, and were the most aggressive in challenges per minute of opposition possession. The first two were dissimilar to how Celtic play but the third at least adjacent.