Liel Abada's superb Celtic start shouldn't be overshadowed by inconsistent results

By David Walton

September 27, 2021

There aren’t many positives for Celtic at the moment, but Liel Abada is most certainly one of them.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Dundee Utd at Celtic Park was infuriating for watching Hoops fans. Not enough players were leading from the front or grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck.

However, that’s simply not something you could label at goalscorer Abada. The Israeli talent managed to glance home a back-post header to give Celtic the lead. But it wasn’t just his impressive eye for goal that made him standout over everyone else.

Arguably, only Jota on the left flank was as productive as Liel. With six goals and four assists to his name, you’re starting to expect this sort of individual heroism from Abada. He’s stepping up when many around him are failing to do so, and his attacking stats against Utd are valid proof of that.

Stat trackers WhoScored gave Abada an overall ranking of 8.29 out of 10. That’s mightily impressive, and it’s easy to see why when you read into his attacking influence.

Abada put 11 crosses into the box throughout the contest. Only David Turnbull managed higher with 12, with four of Liel’s finding their mark.

Liel Abada is turning into a reliable Celtic figure

That’s not even including the dangerous crosses that fizzed across the Utd penalty area with no takers. Given the static movement of Albian Ajeti. it’s no wonder so many of Liel’s crosses aren’t finding their intended target. He needs better from the striker.

Including his goal, Abada also managed four shots in total as well as three key passes throughout. He also had the highest passing accuracy stats of any of the forward players – bagging a final score of 80%.

These are stats that show Celtic’s profligacy in the final third certainly isn’t due to a lack of endeavour from Abada. He’s one of the few standing out on a weekly basis, and at only 19 years of age, that’s incredible when you think about it.

10 direct goal contributions in 13 matches tells its own story. Abada is absolutely thriving in Scotland, and the frightening level of potential he has isn’t discussed anywhere near enough.

Even though there are a host of concerns surrounding the club at the moment, the quality of new signing Abada isn’t one of them. He’s solid proof of the talent the club has actually managed to acquire in the summer.

Hopefully, some of the other senior figures can follow in Liel’s lead. The fact Celtic aren’t producing consistent results shouldn’t be allowed to disguise Abada’s amazing start to his Parkhead career. We have a colossal talent in our hands here.

In other news, Celtic could do worse than keep tabs on Dundee Utd’s Cameroon international Jeando Fuchs