Two goals in consecutive games from corner passes was rare from Celtic in the recent Kilmarnock and Ross County ties. One was assisted by McGregor but it is Christie and now Griffiths that dominate free kick and corner duties over the season. Celtic Set Piece Summary Celtic have scored 7 times direct from set piece … [continue reading]
Player Performance
Edouard and the “Finishing” Myth
One of the many insights xG gives us is that great goal scorers are defined by two key attributes. They take a lot of shots from good positions. The lack of deviation over time from xG also shows us that the concept of “finishing” is a bit of a myth. Cristiano Ronaldo is the most … [continue reading]
Centre Health
By James Dailey Are Celtic well covered at Centre Half? This seems such a simple question, but the answer is unfortunately conditional. Two centre halfs at Celtic get what I believe to be unfair criticisms which focus on relative weaknesses, ignore strengths, and lack contextual benchmarking. Of course, performance levels are irrelevant if players cannot … [continue reading]
Bitton Is A Centre Half
By James Dailey Much angst and disgust were expressed in the dying moments of the transfer window on Friday. Part of being a supporter is “enjoying” the raw swings in emotion. I wish I had a nickel for every time my Twitter feed included a post declaring how the board was amid betraying the support … [continue reading]
Unshackle McGregor
By James Dailey In the lead up to the Cup Final in December, I started a comprehensive comparative analysis between the squads of Celtic and The Rangers, while trying to attribute where they were performing better than our team. At that time, their cumulative xG was better than Celtic’s and their xG surrendered was only … [continue reading]
Ntcham Bias
By James Dailey (@jucojames) I am guessing at the outset that this piece may trigger the most cognitive dissonance amongst readers and want to state upfront that I am not casting any aspersions on other supporters. I have noticed that players with more laidback demeanors, such as Edouard and Forrest, seem to get more criticism … [continue reading]
Elite Edouard
As the window hopefully closes without any major outgoings, we should pause and reflect on the progress of Edouard. Scouts shouldn’t read this article. You’ll hate it. Lonesome Eddy For one and a half seasons he has carried the burden of being the Celtic point of attack almost single handed. Last season in January Rodgers … [continue reading]
Forrest for the Trees
Article by James Dailey (@jucojames) Perhaps no Celtic player has been a better case study for human cognition than James Forrest. People often formulate impressions and opinions of players early in their tenure with the club, which creates a cognitive anchor of sorts. We homo sapiens all think we are rational, but our minds play … [continue reading]
Donnelly Is The Brown We Think We Have
Article by James Dailey I started a deep dive into analyzing Scott Brown’s age-based performance decline this past summer, which was catalyzed by an exchange with Alan in the comments section of Celticbynumbers prior to the first Cluj qualifier. My “eye test” was telling me that Brown was looking well off the pace and was … [continue reading]
Celtic Strikes Back
Article by James Dailey The signing of Patryk Klimala has generated the typical frenetic response from Celtic support, as some immediately think he and the Slovakian league are rubbish, some watch his video highlights on Youtube and extol on Twitter that he is the “next Lewandowski,” while still others take a wait and see approach. … [continue reading]