This was originally to have published late last week but once it became clear MLS was happening, focus shifted to getting Issue 25 out before auctions began to close. Of course, this Issue becomes more relevant the closer we get to summer, and then again for the first few weeks.
The goal for this article is to identify the players who have been consistent goal threats - both the scorers and creators - over the past couple of seasons. Those players were checked against the SO5 scores via SorareData, and the players included here have proved capable of big scores but may have had their total scores throttled a bit by limited opportunity. Turns out, if you’re really good at g+a in Scotland, you don’t stay in Scotland long!
That meant a shift in focus was necessary. Celtic aren’t just winning the title this year at a canter, the club boasts loads of the top scoring talent (SO5, AAS, goals and assists). Today’s issue is not merely a list of the best scoring SPL players of the past two seasons - that would be too easy. But after talking about Celtic’s top options, there are included here players who may have stronger underlying numbers, top tier /90’ rates but lack playing time, and um, are some of the best scoring SPL players of the past two seasons.
It’s not a surprise that Celtic, sitting atop the SPL table on points and goals scored, would have a number of the top scoring SO5 assets on the roster. In fact, if you sort by last 15 and require at least 10 appearances in those games, the top three highest scoring players are all playing at Celtic Park.