Celtic Striker Evolution

What studying those who have achieved the 25-goal mark tells us about the development of the Celtic striking role.

Today we celebrate Daizen Maeda sprinting, at speeds that meet the “Very High” definition, to 25 goals for the season.

In more uncomplicated times, when first-team squads consisted of less than 20 players and sports science was a 1950s B movie about basketball-playing robots who destroy mankind, Celtic players would often reach such a landmark.

In the time I have been creating voluminous spreadsheets, the 2014-15 season, Maeda became the sixth player to hit this mark.

We have:

· Leigh Griffiths 2015-16 40

· Scott Sinclair 2016-17 25

· Moussa Dembele 2016-17 32

· Odsonne Edouard 2019-20 28

· Kyogo Furuhashi 2022-23 34

· Daizen Maeda 2024-25 25 (so far)

Now, I do not have the same depth of data for each of those seasons so this analysis will have its constraints.

The other important point to bring out is “What am I trying to prove”?

Nothing specific, really. This won’t be about who is the best player or even what was the best season of goalscoring per se. I am viewing this as an exercise to illustrate as always that there will be important context and specificities to each player’s season and also to see what the numbers tell us about the general phenomenon of a high-scoring individual season.