For a couple of weeks there, you’d have thought that there was only one striker in Scottish football. The press was so thrilled at Colak and full of congratulations for his “brilliant” form you would not have known that there was anybody out there doing the business. And yet, of course there were and more than a couple of them are at Celtic.
At the time of writing this, Colak is the top scorer in the SPFL.
That’s good news for the Ibrox club as far as it goes, but the trouble is that it doesn’t go very far. He has played 11 games and has 10 goals and that sounds, and actually is, impressive.
But behind him is Bojan Miovski of Aberdeen, on 8 goals in the same number of matches … that’s more impressive when you consider their club is still in a period of transition. Behind him is Lawrence Shankland on 7 goals in 11 games, after his weekend hat-trick. That, too, is pretty impressive considering that achievement on Saturday.
Here’s what’s interesting; you have to drop down to 14th to find another Ibrox player on that list, James Tavernier with 3 goals. Drop to 23rd to find John Lundstram, also with 3. Between those three players they’ve got 16 goals. And there is the problem they have.
Because at fourth on the list is Kyogo, with 7 goals.
Celtic players are also at position 6 and 7, and that’s Abada and Giakoumakis respectively with 6 goals each.
That’s 19 goals in total between just those three.
Two below Giakoumakis, in position 9, is Jota, with 4 goals. Position 11 is James Forrest, with 4 goals. All of them in the last two weeks. Maeda is on the list too, at position 24, with two goals. That’s the top 25 in league scorers.
We have 29 goals from that list, a full 13 more than Ibrox managed. They have one player scoring with any kind of consistency, and at the weekend he didn’t show up and so of course they dropped points. If a team can mark this guy out of a game, they have a shot.
It gets better, because all three of the players about Kyogo have played more games than him. They got their totals in 11 matches. He goes his seven goals in nine. Colak’s goals per 90 minutes ratio is an impressive 1.10. But Kyogo’s is 1.16. Abada’s is 1.13. Giakoumakis has that beat, and with a ratio of 1.18 there are only two players on the list whose ratio is better; one is Alex Grieve of St Mirren with 1.19, 3 goals in 9 games and, of course, James Forrest with his 1.88.
It is clear that Celtic have the most lethal players in the league, even if none of them have the 10 goals that Colak currently does. Our goals are spread through the squad, and those exceptional front men in particular.
No wonder the media wants to focus your attention on the one guy in their team who is consistently on the scoresheet. If he gets injured or loses form, they are going to be just about nowhere, which is why they are looking at Blackpool’s Jerry Yates, and being told that he will cost them an eye-watering sum.
They know this a priority for January … but they have other priorities and it remains to be seen if there will even be a title race by the time that window opens.
Every player in the Celtic squad, apart from our goalkeepers, are potential goal scorers. We can score anytime from anywhere and when we are on form, which is most of the time, we are a nightmare to defend against. No team can hand pick and man mark our dangermen because there are just too many of them to cover. Let’s hope we can bring that to the table tomorrow night in the CL, that’s where it is badly needed just now.
The only reason one or more Celtic players aren’t leading the league in goals is because of the heavy squad rotation Ange is implementing. But I think the bigger lesson to be learned here is that it doesn’t matter who is playing in the attacking positions at Celtic – they’re all going to score. The attacking system Ange has successfully implemented results in an absurd number of scoring chances for the entire team and anybody even half decent is going score in bunches in this lineup.
Sometimes I wonder if we do have a striker, at times you watch a meandering front line getting into position awaiting the cross, the cut back that moment to shine and then the cheeky left back nips in with the winner. GG is finding his scoring boots are back on Maeda hitting the target. Goals are shared within this team and everyone are happy to share. This is why we will triumph.
James you are wrong sevco are not our rivals they are a wee small insignificant new clublteam/clumpany of any relevance to Glasgow Celtic and it’s supporters FACT