Articles

Here’s Another Celtic Stat Which Should Scare Our Rivals Stupid For Next Season.

|
Image for Here’s Another Celtic Stat Which Should Scare Our Rivals Stupid For Next Season.

There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Can a statistic be a lie?

Sometimes yes, but here’s one that isn’t and it doesn’t speak well to what’s to come for Celtic’s rivals in the next campaign.

It’s this; none of our players managed more than ten goals in the league.

It’s there in black and white.

Our top league scorers have ten goals each; Giakoumakis, Abada and Kyogo.

We’ve won this title on a good spread of goals throughout the team and having the best defence in the country.

None of our forwards has had what you might call a brilliant season on their own, in terms of league duty … yet all have been brilliant.

Next season, they will all almost certainly score more league goals than that. Maeda has six; you better believe that he’ll be comfortably in double digits himself. Injuries and other issues have kept these guys from scoring more, but it hasn’t been enough to stop us. When these boys are fully settled, fully fit and find their form … who’s going to stop us?

The spread of goals, and how we’ve kept this thing ticking along nicely, can be demonstrated by looking at how many goals we’ve scored in the league; 85 of them at the time of writing. Yet no one player has more than ten! Can you imagine how many we’ll score next season, with the same distribution but our forward players on even greater form?

It helps, of course, that we’ve only conceded 21 goals … and we had lost 12 of them before January, which makes our back end form all the more impressive looking. (And of those 12, we shipped four before September ended, which is a tribute to our defence.)

As this team grows you’re going to see the form and the numbers just keep getting better; that’s what you expect from a second campaign, once players have bedded in and got used to the system. If that pattern is reflected in our players next season then – dare I say this? – another invincible campaign is not completely out of the question.

We’ve not lost a game in the league since 19 September; it was our third defeat in the first six games. Once this team got the wind in its sails it didn’t even look like losing another match for many, many, many months. If we’d had a finisher on clinical form – or even one who was fully fit – would we have dropped points in some of the draws we did?

The prospect of this team, and particularly its forward line, being in even greater form next season is one that should terrify every other club in the league. And I for one cannot wait to see how we will line up when the new campaign begins.

Share this article

0 comments

  • Pan says:

    I received a text with bad news earlier.
    Apparently we will not received the League trophy until the beginning of next season as the SPFL have still to determine which pawn shop it is in.

  • Johnny Green says:

    The Sons of Satan won one in a row….full stop….. whoop de doo

    We are about to go on another league winning run that could go on indefinitely and your stats James reinforces that theory. Yes, the players we have will be better next year, they will be more comfortable with Ange’s system and more adept at achieving his aims. We will also strengthen the side with 3/4 talented players over and above Jota and CCV, players who who will gladly sign on the dotted line due to the Champion’s League pull. Once again the SOS will be playing catch up, we welcome the chase.

  • Ewen M. Cameron says:

    I was looking at the PL’s top scorer list yesterday, and what struck me was that, while it’s not been a vintage year for goalscorers (Regan Charles-Cook is top of the list with just 13 goals), two of the three Celts on 10 goals have hit that tally in less than 20 games (Kyogo 18, GG 19), and both are in the top 3 for minutes per goal and goals per 90. Giakoumakis is actually on 0.96 goals per 90 minutes, 94 minutes per goal, almost Larssonesque figures. With a proper preseason, and presuming they stay fit, next season should see either or both easily top the 20-goal mark.

    Also, a word about Jota. He has 9 goals and 10 assists in his 27 appearances, a goal contribution only bettered by Tavernier (pen) in the top flight, from 34 appearances and as his team’s main setpiece taker. Again, assuming an injury-free season, Jota’s contribution in goals and assists could easily top 30 next time round.

    So those 4 players – our main goal threat – have 39 goals between them this season, which is not even half our tally in the league. Keep all four of them fit and playing regularly, the possibilities are frightening … for other teams. Assuming, once more, no injuries, as well as other players maintaining their contribution, a 100-plus goal league season should be well within the realms of possibility.

  • SSMPM says:

    Don’t get carried away yet. I’m looking forward to what’s ahead next season too but easy bhoy. I know we don’t say it often but wangers are still a challenging outfit. If they find funding from the magic orange money tree, add a few good standard players and keep a few of the players we thought might go, then it will be a challenge next year too. We’ve won because of a remarkable unbeaten run and we need quality squad additions.
    Let’s get CCV, Jota and Maeda over the line before we start on about improving what we’ve got, when strictly speaking we’ve not got. Its a great foundation if we get them over the line no doubt. Two or three quality additions and, getting greedy now, one or two big name loans and it could be an exceptional season, a CL winning season, easy to get carried away. Midweek title win and Paradise celebrations to come. C’mon a Hoops

    • Hans says:

      This. Sums it up perfectly. No one will be quaking in their boots at Ibrox. We need to be in the same state of competitive readiness we’ve shown since Sept. Take nothing for granted and deliver when required.

  • Joe says:

    The football this team plays is the best I’ve seen since the Tommy Burns 3 Amigos team. However. Our goals to chances created ratio is horrible and it is nothing to do with injuries. We need an out and out goal scorer.

  • Sonny says:

    What you did not hear was from boyd, on the phone to his father , hey da Gonny get me wan of those hats they aw wear in Spain

    Wan way the big rim round it I think the call it a sombrero good colour printed on the hat got to stick out in Spain

  • Bennybhoy57 says:

    The fact players don’t need to go through the stress of European qualifying games this summer will be massive.
    Also super computer should be in our favour, with sevco, hearts, and livi the teams we lost to in our first six games all played at celtic Park first.
    Nine points better off before end September.
    Ange not starting from scratch…full pre season with settled and new players, can’t wait for next level after league flag is hoisted end of July.

  • Martin H. says:

    Even after the ropey start we had to the season, we’ve only lost the same number of games as the ibrox club, and just a wee footnote I hope we get to say a big thanks and farewell to one of our greatest captains, Scott Brown, at Saturday’s party, hope he’s there.

  • Michael McCartney says:

    Incredible statistics James, I’m already looking forward to next season.

  • Paul says:

    A song for ange fern Kenny together we are beautiful

Comments are closed.