All season long, Celtic have struggled to score goals, and they have lost that bite in the final third compared to previous campaigns.
But one man who continues to score for fun is Benjamin Nygren, and he found goal number 18 of the season on Sunday during Celtic’s defeat to Hibernian.
Despite this, Peter Grant thinks the Hoops summer signing still gets ‘criticism’, but he wanted to praise the versatile player for his goals.
Are Celtic fans too harsh towards Benjamin Nygren?
Another goal and assist on the charts
Peter Grant says Benjamin Nygren is ‘incredible’ despite ‘criticism’
One of the issues Grant wanted to highlight was Celtic’s style of play, and how it has gone out of the window.
Not only are the champions of Scotland struggling to do the ‘simple’ things right, but he also feels that the opposition are, more often than not, taking the game to the Hoops.
That’s why Grant wanted to give Nygren his flowers, because where would Celtic be without his goals?
“Celtic are nowhere near their best,” said Grant. “The players aren’t playing at their best. There is no doubt about that. You can sense that, with the way they play, everyone is a bit tentative.
“You were always told, ‘make it simple’ – it’s common sense, make it as simple as you can. The biggest thing for me is that there are too many teams coming, and they have time on the ball to look forward and make passes.
“It was never allowed at Ibrox or Celtic Park that you were in people’s faces. Making them kick the ball away or kick it back to you. They just don’t do that consistently enough.
“People talk about statistics, and passing or whatever. The only statistics that counts is the goals. What you score, and what you concede. And that’s never going to change in football.
“So, you have to put the ball into the box. Listen, it’s a good job Nygren is there. People criticise him. But he is incredible.
“The one thing I kept saying, and I said to you before, the one thing is that he gets criticism. But he keeps going back. He keeps going back. He should have probably scored earlier (against Hibernian). He had a big chance.”
Can Nygren surpass Daizen Maeda’s 33 goals from last season?
Daizen Maeda won Scotland’s PFA Player of the Year last season after scoring 33 goals in all competitions, as Brendan Rodgers guided Celtic to the double.
But can Nygren surpass that number? One thing is for sure: he is playing regularly to do so, and he also has the goal-scoring form.
Added to that, Celtic are still in the Scottish Cup, so that’s an extra few matches for Nygren to get to the 20-goal margin, and beyond.
But it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Swedish star is hitting these numbers because he is making a career out of it.
- 20/21 season: Seven goals in 35 matches
- 21/22: Four goals in 33
- 22/23: Nine goals in 35
- 23/24: 15 goals in 34
- 24/25: 16 goals in 32
- 25/26: 18 goals in 43 (on-going)
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