Benjamin Nygren has firmly taken the lead in the race to be named Celtic’s Player of the Year.
A few months ago, this would’ve been a barely believable claim – but the numbers have simply become impossible to avoid.
In terms of consistency from his attackers, Martin O’Neill has often been left wanting. Daizen Maeda has been unable to continue his award-winning form from last year, whilst Sebastian Tounekti and Yang Hyun-Jun constantly follow up encouraging performances with underwhelming ones.
New signings Tomas Cvancara and Junior Adamu have had numerous false starts, with others completely out of the picture. Thankfully for the interim boss, there has been one constant.
Celtic are better when Benjamin Nygren plays 🤨
Should Martin O'Neill be focusing the team around him so that he scores even more goals?
Benjamin Nygren’s Celtic Player of the Year push
Nygren has more goals since the turn of the year than any other Celtic player has in the season’s entirety.
Only Callum McGregor has appeared in more matches, such has been the Swede’s trustworthy availability. To imagine where Celtic would be without him is daunting to say the least.
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The 24-year-old is making a mockery of the club’s race for top scorer, sitting eleven goals ahead of Maeda in second.
In the Scottish Premiership as a whole, Nygren’s minutes-per-goal rate of 124 is the best in the division, marginally ahead of Tawanda Maswanhise – all without taking a single penalty.
He has now equalled Matt O’Riley’s goal total from his own POTY-winning season two years ago, after which he moved to Brighton for a fee rising to £30 million.
If expected goals are your thing (they certainly aren’t the manager’s), he is overperforming his league total of 10.71 by over four – in fact, Maeda has registered more xG, returning just seven from a total of 11.53.
The fact that he overperformed his expected total in last season’s Danish Superliga bodes well for his future as a reliable finisher.
Should Nygren kick on and win the award, he would be the first player to do so in their first season at the club since Scott Sinclair in 2016-17.
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Another goal and assist on the charts
Who else is in the running to be Celtic’s player of the year?
As it stands, Nygren’s only close competitor for the award is Kieran Tierney.
Remarkably, the full-back is Celtic’s third-top goalscorer in the Premiership this season, and he has already played more minutes this campaign than he did in any at Arsenal or Real Sociedad.
Tierney is in his best vein of form since returning, timing it well ahead of the run-in, which could see more twists and turns in the race.
But both he and Nygren will be hoping that it isn’t the only silverware they’ll have picked up by the end of the season.
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