Part of the problem with stats is you can effectively twist them in any way that you like to prove a point or push an agenda, but they can sometimes give you an idea if certain things are working well.
Last summer saw plenty of talk about Angeball and how it would look, with a lot of the emphasis on what would happen when Celtic actually had the ball.
Talking about what happens when the other team has the ball isn’t overly exciting, but the best teams are the ones who can apply effective pressure and win the ball back as soon as possible, and this stat shows that out of the “top 5” leagues, only Barcelona had a better record than Celtic in making swift defensive actions:
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Champions Celtic allowed opponents an average of just 9.2 open-play passes before making a defensive action in the Scottish Premiership last season. Across the top 5 European leagues in 2021-22, only club to have a better average was Barcelona (9.0) via @OptaAnalyst 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CPJiDDbN7v
— Sacha Pisani (@Sachk0) June 22, 2022
There are plenty of reasons why this is important, the main one being that if you can win the ball back high up the pitch then you’ve got an immediate opportunity to create something dangerous, but if the opposition is constantly chasing the ball and struggling to create anything then they’re going to get tired quickly too.
The same account also made an interesting point about Giorgos Giakoumakis. The Greek striker scored 13 league goals and did struggle with injuries and getting a regular run of games, but this does make you wonder what he’s capable of if he can stay fit and play in most games next season:
Per @OptaAnalyst: Including penalties, Giakoumakis averaged 1.11 goals per 90 mins in the Scottish Premiership last season.
He only played 1,058 mins, so based on that average, he would’ve scored 42 goals if he'd played every single minute of Celtic's league campaign. pic.twitter.com/MKmjQ244tC
— Sacha Pisani (@Sachk0) June 22, 2022
Again, stats in isolation can be taken in many different ways, but effectively winning the ball back and having a deadly striker is always going to be welcome.
