With Giorgos Giakoumakis leaving, I thought I’d share the numbers on goals and expected goals (xG) per 90 minutes. The Greek scored 26 goals in 52 appearances and was an excellent fit for the requirements of a striker in Ange Postecoglou’s system.
Fanfare over, here it is (data from this season – all competitions):
Note this included all non-penalty goals and xG only.
Giakoumakis was racking up close to one xG per 90 minutes although he was scoring at the rate of 0.77.
It will be fascinating to see if Kyogo Furuhashi can maintain his trouncing of xG numbers, a continuation of his data from last season. Despite xG of 0.69 per 90m, he is scoring at 0.93 goals per 90m. And people say he misses a lot of chances!
Liel Abada continues to perform more like a striker than a winger when it comes to scoring and xG.
Of the wingers, this season’s more assertive Daizen Maeda is matching Jota for xG although both are outperforming that.
The midfield sees Turnbull getting a long shot streak going and the attendant xG overperformance that brings.
Matt O’Riley continues his remarkable run of zero goals despite attempting 67 shots!
Both Sead Haksabanovic for the winger’s union and Reo Hatate from the midfielders are light on goal threat in comparison to their peers.
But, in summary, Giakoumakis leaves quite a hole but the recruitment has been unerringly smart so far and another well-chosen player whose attributes match the spec may emerge in Oh Hyeongyu. As we have seen above that is quite a challenge for the youngster as the player he is replacing was arguably at the peak of his game albeit in a “super sub” role.
Challenge accepted!
It means that we cannot hold on to players who only want one thing which is money ,
The prestige that goes with scoring goals .and winning is such. A margin for someone like
Giakoumakis who believes that money is worth more than the glamour of playing for such
A club like Celtic with its history and prestige, and I’m sure giakoumakis. Will miss the winning
And hero worship that he would have got at Celtic ,
Also maybe that it was not an issue to learn under a Manager who is great and he would have
Learned much more than he will find out .
As much as I liked big GG, he was a natural goalscorer who at times had very poor control and passing ability. I wish him all the best in the MSL and will watch Atlanta with interest as I do Montreal and Vancouver. I believe that Oh will create far more chances than than Kyogo or GG judging from his limited playing time. That cross from the right for Maeda was superb (he headed it over the bar). He is bound to score a few more off the bench and might even get a start towards the end of the season. Oh will be an upgrade on GG due to his better control, passing and movement.
Thanks for all the stats and the time you put into Celtic, Allan. This old Celtic fan appreciates it.