Finding Mister 20%

With the Champions League Qualifiers imminent, it was great to see Griffiths knocking the goals in preseason. Chances will be limited in these qualifiers an under prepared side kicks off before Wimbledon has finished. Shot efficiency will be key.

Shot Accuracy

The graph shows the % of all shots each player landed on target.

It was a slim season for Griffiths with a meagre 6 goals. However, he topped the shot accuracy table with 54% of efforts on target.

Johnston’s promise is further enhanced with the only other total over 50%.

Simunovic puts fellow defenders to shame with a 47% accuracy return. The majority of other defenders languish around the 25% mark.

Sinclair has always been very precise with his shooting.

You may be surprised to see Burke up there but as I have covered elsewhere, his overall attacking numbers were very good.

Rogic and Ntcham are perennial over optimistic shot takers and are below 40%. As surprisingly is Forrest considering his excellent goal return. Room for further improvement then.

Hayes? Woeful! Some players have All Shot Conversion rates higher than that.

In the English Premier League last season only two players had a Shot Accuracy rating >49%. Pogba was 50% and Salah 64%!

On Target Shot Conversion

Hitting the target is stage 1 in attempting to score but clearly it needs to be a shot of sufficient quality to actually score.

The graph below shows Shot Conversion rates from On Target shots.

Last season saw Brown score 3 goals after a goalless season. And not surprising given 60% of his On Target shots resulted in goals!

Edouard then had a more sustainable 41% which is impressive given the volume of shots he takes relative to others.

Forrest may not have got many on target but 38% of them went in.

Notice how Christie is steady and consistent across all these metrics.

Rogic, Ntcham and McGregor all suffer because many of their shots are from outside the box and have very low probability Expected Goals.

All Shot Conversion

If we consider the % of all shots that result in goals we get a good understanding overall of shot selection and accuracy.

And it is good to see Celtic’s big money striker topping this chart. 18% of all Edouard’s shots result in goals.

Sinclair and Johnston are not far behind on 16%.

Is this good though?

Well, if we again look at the English Premier League, 18% won’t get you into the Top 10. You’d need to be hitting over 21% to make that elite list. Martial of Manchester United had the best overall Shot Conversion Rate with 27%.

Summary

It is obvious that although Edouard is talented, being the out and out number 9 is probably not his best position. However, he is the most effective Celtic forward.

Celtic need a couple of players who will push over 20% Shot Conversion. A fit Griffiths may achieve that.