The Midfield Minefield

We go on about it a lot. Time to crunch the ol' numbers on the midfield three.

I am going to try something different today.

The topic is, once again, the midfield – specifically Callum McGregor and the two nominal “8s”.

I think we can accept that Celtic have played consistently in terms of midfield roles back to Ange Postecoglou’s first season 2021-22.

Therefore, it is a fair comparison to look back at performance in those roles for four seasons.

What I will do is aggregate the per 90-minute performance metrics for each of the three most prevalent performers in each of the seasons. Effectively this means McGregor plus two. The idea is to get an overall indication of what output we are getting from “the midfield” as a whole rather than focusing on individuals specifically.

The most common three in each season with 90-minute equivalent matches completed are:

· 21-22 – McGregor (49.14), David Turnbull (34.26), and Tom Rogic (30.83)

· 22-23 – McGregor (40.46), Matt O’Riley (36.88), and Reo Hatate (35.64)

· 23-24 – O’Riley (47.68), McGregor (41.44), and Paolo Bernardo (16.14)

· 24-25 – McGregor (42.28), Hatate (36.56), and Arne Engels (29.40)

What we are testing is that Celtic are not getting as much creative output this season compared to prior campaigns from the midfield three.