The Celtic By Numbers Player of the Year is revealed! I have considered squad performances across Defending, Creativity and Goal Threat. Short List Firstly, whilst there are stellar performances across the squad, not all players have contributed equally in terms of appearances on the park. Quite simply, some have had more work to do than … [continue reading]
Forrest
Forrest vs Sinclair: Wing Wonders
Forrest was the first to double digit goals and assists for Celtic and leads Scoring Contribution with 27. Sinclair has 7 goals in five matches. Which of the wing wonders is having the best overall season? Scoring Contribution and Expected Scoring Contribution Both players have featured heavily with Sinclair completing the equivalent of 26.36 matches … [continue reading]
Can Edouard and Forrest Maintain Scoring Momentum?
With only one striker for much of the season, it is the blossoming Forrest that has led the Scoring Contribution chart so far. Scoring Contribution Scoring Contribution is simply Goals + Assists. Forrest has an incredible 16 assists to add to his 11 goals. Edouard is top scorer with 14 goals, and 8 assists. The … [continue reading]
Forrest Given Time To Improve
Forrest’s form is fantastic. Hitting the heights at International football as well, the winger’s stock has never been higher. Moving onwards towards 400 Celtic games I have plenty of data to go at to assess why this might be. Forrest sits second in the Scoring Points table, 1 behind Edouard and 14 ahead of McGregor. … [continue reading]
New Bromantics
Not only did Rogic assist 3 Forrest goals against St Johnstone, all 3 goals were “one-twos” between the players meaning Forrest racked up 3 secondary assists! It got me thinking what have been the most productive partnerships recently? Getting on well is not a prerequisite for footballers to connect effectively with each other on the … [continue reading]
Right Side, Wrong Balance?
As Celtic prepare for Rosenborg, the Linfield games highlighted the extent to which the attacking connections were left side dominant. Here is the Pack Pass Map for the 1st leg. Note that this is not a map of ALL passes. It is a map of all passes where at least one opponent was taken out … [continue reading]
Goodnight, Sweet Prince
In the sixth article in the 2016/17 season review series, I consider the work of the wingers. Arguably the strongest section of the team, last season was the story of three excellent players. Celtic play with either three attacking midfielders behind a striker, or three forwards of which two are wide. Sinclair has made the … [continue reading]
Give Me More Wings
Last night on Twitter, Tiago Estêvão@TiagoEstv posted a fascinating analysis of performance data for the 4 most productive wingers (goals and assists) from the 6 leading leagues in Europe (England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain – he is Portugese!). Wingers With End Product I reproduce the output here – again with thanks to Tiago … [continue reading]
Give Me Wings
Over the last few days following the Heralds claim that Forrest is reborn and with Celtic apparently looking at options to extend Roberts’ stay, I looked at Forrest having his best Celtic season and Roberts, dipping from a stellar start to his Celtic career, but showing tremendous potential. Here is a “quick and dirty” look … [continue reading]
James The First – Redux
James Forrest recently signed a new deal to 2019 and today the Herald proclaims the second coming. Has Rodgers worked a miracle? (Note I look at the last 3 seasons for detailed performance data as this is what I have personally collected but some overall career summary data to start (source Transfermarkt)). Forrest Appearance Data … [continue reading]