There’s a long running and never ending debate in football about the importance and reliability of stats – essentially you can make them tell you anything if you try hard enough.
Of course you would never sign a player purely based on some of their metrics, but if someone is off the charts in comparison to their peers then it tells you there’s something special about them.
David Turnbull has been widely linked with Celtic for over a year and he’d probably be at Celtic Park now if it wasn’t for a bad injury, but he’s recovered from that and looks like the same player.
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The BBC have confirmed that Celtic are in talks with Motherwell again for his signing, although it’s important to remember what happened last time so don’t presume it’s done until the club actually confirm it.
In a separate report they also suggested that Tom Rogic will be on his way out of the club, so you have to expect that Turnbull will come in and challenge Ryan Christie for that spot as the attacking midfielder.
Turnbull is fairly similar to Rogic in the sense that he does lack some pace, but his technique and quality still allow him to stand out and he’s a prolific goal scorer too.
There’s more than goals to his game, and this graphic shows just how much more he contributes in terms of progressing passing and runs when compared to others in the Premiership:
Early look at which non-Old Firm central midfielders are aiming to advance possession the most this season.
David Turnbull is a bit of a joke. pic.twitter.com/47GEoG3gs6
— Craig Vickers (@craigvickers_) August 25, 2020
As always, these stats only show what he’s done for Motherwell so we have no idea how he’ll cope in a Celtic midfield that isn’t necessarily built around him, but he clearly has the quality to thrive at a higher level.
He should see more of the ball and he’ll be playing with better teammates so that should give him even more passing options, so it will be interesting to see how he gets on if and when he makes the move.
