Does Nygren bring a special skill-set that Celtic have been missing?

So the other day, someone was showing me some clips of Nygren. And he really does look good. But it was my old man last night who showed me a clip where he scored a couple of free-kick goals. Really good ones. Am I excited? I am. I know there’s a perception in some quarters that it’s not really the kind of thing that should matter—but it does matter.

I’ve lamented our absence of a dead-ball specialist for an age now. Ghost takes a mean corner kick—his delivery is by far the best in the team—but we don’t have a free-kick hitter. And that’s a much bigger deal than a lot of people seem to think. Because a good one of those can win you points on his own. It’s happened at Ibrox a million times. Whatever we might say about Tavernier, he is a great free-kick taker. And those free-kicks have won his team games.

So now we have—or we’re about to have—a player who can do that. And that’s got to be worth points. That’s got to put goals on the board. It means those situations that we all roll our eyes at—whenever we get a free-kick within killing distance outside the box—might actually mean something now. Right now, in this moment, we know those chances are wasted, because we don’t have a single player capable of scoring them consistently. And maybe now we do. And I’m excited about that. It’s a weapon. A weapon we do not currently possess. And if we’re about to be handed one like that, it’s only going to help us.

It’s been so long since I saw a Celtic player score direct from a free-kick that I can’t even remember who it was. The last one I can definitely place in my mind was the one Jota scored in Madrid, in a game we lost by six goals. And I’ll be honest—every time we sign an attacking player, it’s the first thing I’m looking for when I’m watching his clips. Can this guy hit a dead ball? Can he put the ball in the net from outside the box?

The worst part is, we’ve had some superb players who could do that. From Nakamura to Juninho, to Shaun Maloney and Lubo Moravcik. We’ve watched truly great players take free-kicks over the years. I remember one of the first I saw score consistently from them was John Collins. He got a beauty at Ibrox on that day against Rangers when our fans weren’t allowed into the ground.

Some of the finest moments of my Celtic-supporting life have been free-kicks. David Provan’s goal in the 1985 Scottish Cup Final—I’ll remember it till the day I die, even though I didn’t actually see it. I was at the game, and I had a perfect line of sight, but I was so scared in the moment that I had my eyes closed. All I knew was that everyone around me went nuts. I didn’t see that goal for over a week—but you better believe I’ve had it on replay ever since.

I was working as a steward at Celtic Park the night Nakamura scored his free-kick against Manchester United. I was at university at the time and had to give up my season ticket, so working matchdays was the only way to guarantee I could see every game. I watched that goal standing in a stairwell and lost my mind along with every other fan in the stadium.

Nakamura’s league-winning goals are obviously awesome memories. But there’s a Lubo goal that lives with me as one of the finest I’ve ever seen. It’s a happy memory for more than just the sheer craftsmanship of the shot. It was against Motherwell, at Celtic Park, very late in the game—well into injury time. Their keeper that night was Andy Goram. He played a blinder, saved everything that came near him. Until Lubo lashed that one past him. And his reaction was priceless—Goram was furious. And that just made it sweeter.

So I’m putting a lot of hope in these clips. I’m hoping they’re the shape of things to come. Because we are crying out for a guy who can do this. And when you think about the number of excellent, technically gifted players we’ve had come through in the last few years, it’s actually amazing that none of them has had this in their locker on anything like a regular basis.

Maybe this guy does. And that’s worth a lot of goals over the course of a season. That might even be the difference in a tight title race, if we’re ever in one.