Against St Mirren on Sunday, Liel Abada produced a substitutes performance as productive as any of recent times.
Yes he was playing against 10 men who were sure to be tiring, but what he brought to the game was exactly what was needed.
Abada has been involved in more matches than any other Celtic player under Ange Postecoglou. The reason is that his output remains consistently high.
Whilst last season he was a new young player in a strange land but heavily relied upon within a chaotically emerging system, this term the manager has been able to assimilate him more thoughtfully and gradually as one would hope for an inexperienced player. A point well made by @jucojames on the latest Huddle Breakdown (please subscribe and help grow the channel).
St Mirren
Abada completed 30 passes which equals the most he has in any game this season, but in 45 minutes.
So, he got heavily involved.
What Celtic did more effectively in the second half was run the ball at St Mirren to force decisions and positional errors.
Abada did this eight times, four more than any other player.
He also got into the opposition box eight times, something Celtic only managed 12 times in the first half. Again, he led the team on this by two from Jota.
He managed three shots but the crucial game settling third goal. Boldly, Stephen Robinson had gone back to two up front in a 4-3-2 shape once Celtic went ahead. This naturally allowed Celtic more space in attacking areas. Abada, sensing the space in the box, drove in and thumped a hard shot under Trevor Carson’s arm. Robinson’s boldness would backfire with another conceded as Matt O’Riley had acres to himself in the box minutes later, but Abada seized the space.
Despite his short playing time, Abada finished with the third highest overall packing score of 112, the highest overall Attacking Threat score of 12 and the second highest expected scoring contribution (xSC) of 0.88 behind Oh Hyeongyu whose number were boosted by a late penalty.
By any measure then, a dominant performance and exactly what was needed with credit of course to the manager.
Consistency
Given Daizen Maeda has been quiet on the ball in the last two matches, it would make sense for Abada to get a start tonight against Heart of Midlothian.
And he deserves it.
No player gets more touches of the ball in the box (7.73) nor has a higher expected scoring contribution – a remarkable 1.21 per 90m.
He is also the only Celt in double figures for average attacking threat score with 11.75.
As we discussed on the pod, you get a lot of “rubbish” with Abada. That is, poor decisions, poor crosses, blind alley dribbles.
However, there is incredibly productive goal threat and it is produced consistently.
Unleash hell!
He seems like the perfect moneyball-type signing.
It was interesting that both he and Maeda started on Wednesday night. My reading of that was that Hearts were pressing quite high (presumably this was predictable). This meant there was space for the central players to drift out wide, with less need for the creative wingers from the start? Didn’t necessarily go to plan, obviously. Changes were made etc.
This is about Wednesday, by the way, not Saturday.