Attack! Attack!

Comparing SPFL performance data ahead of the League Cup Final.

Yesterday I addressed the long-term trends at the macro level comparing the protagonists in Sunday’s League Cup Final.

Today using Opta data, I’ll drill down into the team-level performance metrics using the SPFL season thus far.

I won’t cover the goalkeepers as James did earlier in this piece.

External Projections

Before we dive in, a couple of external viewpoints.

Firstly, the admirable X account @TheGersReport continues to produce his projected league table. This uses performance metrics to date to project forward the rest of the campaign via simulation.

Following the recent “The Rangers are back” performances, the projection is for Celtic to win the league title by around 16 points, down from 23. James has already written here illustrating how unlikely it would be for Celtic to cede the league flag from this position.

Some say anything can happen in a one-off cup tie and to an extent that is true but the notion form goes out the window in these games is largely a lazy media trope. The better team usually wins. But let’s not ask a biased Celtic fan, let’s ask someone with money at stake.

The ol’ bookie is gimlet-eyed in pursuit of coin over sentiment in these matters. Over at Oddscheker.com, you can get Celtic at 1/3 on and The Rangers best odds are 15/8.

Not quite the clash of the titans the aforementioned lazy media would have you salivating over.