On A Wing And A Prayer

Can wingers be consistent? Is that even a thing? Let's munge the data and find out!

I introduced the methodology of using the coefficient of variance to establish consistency in an analysis of the midfielders – you can read that here.

In that piece is a link to another article by Marc Lamberts that explains the concept in detail, so I will not reproduce it here.

I want to apply this methodology – the coefficient of variance calculated for highly aggregated metrics specific to each role – throughout the squad.

Today we’ll look at the wingers. Given that Celtic have mainly played a variant of 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 since I started collecting data, the wide forwards have had similar roles.

Note that the Attacking Threat score is relatively new. Note also that the total Packing Score only contained turnovers and recoveries from 2022-23 onwards.

Given the availability of data, I’d also note we don’t see peak Scott Sinclair, for example.

My final caveat. I include all appearances of at least 45 minutes adjusted as if they had played 90 minutes and maintained the same rate of “scoring”.

Oh, and we are measuring consistency, not absolute quality.