The Abada - Turnbull Shoot Out
Many great performances against St Mirren at the weekend. The Hartson selected candidates for Bhoy of the Match were Abada and Turnbull and online Celtic selected Turnbull.
Here’s my data-driven comparison.
Goal Threat
Turnbull managed his first Celtic hattrick off 8 shots, 4 on target. This was double Abada’s output.
Abada managed an astonishing 14 in box possessions – last seasons highest average was Ajeti on 7.58 per 90m.
Abada also received 14 forward passes successfully compared to Turnbull’s 5.
Creativity
Abada is credited with an assist by me as his cross came off the ‘keeper for Turnbull’s second goal. I use the well-established Fantasy Football rule that a shot or cross off the ‘keeper counts as an assist.
Abada also created a remarkable 8 chances – passes that led directly to shots.
Turnbull provided the pass before the assisting pass 5 times.
3 times Abada found a colleague in the Danger Zone (central to the goal within the box).
Turnbull completed 14 Pack Passes (passes that take out opponents).
Summary Attacking Metrics
I wanted to use these two exceptional performances to highlight some aggregated performance metrics that may be new to more recent followers / readers.
Scoring Contribution is simply goals + assists – both had 3.
xSC is Expected Scoring Contribution which is simply xG + xA – Abada racked up 2.72.
Total Pack Score is an aggregate score to reflect the number of Pack Passes provide + Pack Passes received + Pack Dribbles completed. The “score” is derived from how many opponents these actions take out the game on the basis of 3 points for a defender, 2 for a midfielder and 1 for a forward.
Abada had a very high 150 – highest in the team. For context, the highest average Total Pack Score last season was Taylor with 99.65. Not a lot of people know that!
I want to introduce CAT Score. This is my attempt at an aggregated overall Celtic Attacking Threat metric. It is a simple sum of goals, shots on target, assisting passes, touches in the box. Last season the highest CAT Score average per 90m was Edouard with 10.34. So, you can see Abada’s 24 from this match is a massive performance.
Finally, xPts from goals indicates the value of the goals in achieving the result. For example, a last-minute winner is much more valuable than the 6th goal in a 6-0 win. As Abada scored the first two goals, his efforts contributed 1.05 xPts towards Celtic’s 3 points. Whereas Turnbull’s 3 goals only contributed 0.15 xPts.
Conclusion
I hope this has been helpful in sharing some of the metrics I collect and derive.
I had Abada as my Bhoy of the Match mainly due to the comparison on the aggregated total game metrics and that his goals contributed most to the victory.
Both great performances, however.