'Any team would miss him' - how Liel Abada's numbers reveal potential impact of Celtic winger's return

Digging into the facts and figures should leave no doubt as to what Celtic stand to gain from a fully fit Liel Abada when post-shutdown.

Celtic's Liel Abada had been involved in 30 goal actions combined across the pre-Christmas periods of the previous two seasons- illustrating how big a loss he has been in missing that part of this campaign as he worked his way back from a thigh tear. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

That is the belief of Mark Wilson, a title winner with the club in the mid-2000s. The pundit confesses he and all other outside observers were guilty of underestimating the impact that losing the winger for practically the entire first half of the season had on his old team. Abada recovered from his September thigh tear to appear from the bench in Celtic’s final two encounters before the break. He returned to help Brendan Rodgers’ men to victory over Rangers and away to St Mirren as they ended the year on a four-game winning run to recover their poise following back-to-back defeats in early December.

The 22-year-old didn’t add to the goal and assist he claimed in the early weeks of the season across his recent brief run-outs. And Wilson points to the gaping hole Abada’s long-term absence left in Celtic’s returns from wide areas when set against what he produced in the opening five months of his previous two campaigns in Scotland. Signed in a £3.5m deal from Maccabi Peta Tikva during the summer of 2021, the player had bagged nine goals and eight assists by the time 2022 rolled around. Despite struggling for starts last season, those comparable totals were still seven goals and six assists. Those goal totals more than the combined tally this term from three of the wingers utliised at various points to compensate for his unavailability, in the form of Yang Hyun-jun, Mikey Johnston and James Forrest.

“Abada scored on his debut [in July 2021 in a Champions League qualifier against FC Midtjylland], and he hasn’t stopped scoring since,” said Wilson. “He's like any winger. Sometimes it can be hit and miss on the ball. Everyone's obsessed with stats these days and what wide players can produce. He's right up there in terms of assists and goals, so there's no doubt any team would miss him. That's been a position that's been chopped and changed this season. Yang was given a go out there, James Forrest brought back in and Mikey Johnston as well. None has really stood out. Even when [Daizen] Maeda came back [in late December after six weeks out injured] , he looked a bit rusty. No doubt a fit Abada just comes straight back into that starting XI.

“And I think Celtic will be a lot better after the winter break with a fit Liel Abada and a fit Reo Hatate [who also missed most of the first half of the season]. I always felt there was a wee bit of unrest with the fans, just waiting for something to go wrong. When it does, the pressure then comes on your shoulders pretty quickly. I felt Brendan dealt with that well and those four games before Christmas were key. Not only just to win them, but to get performances as well. Sometimes teams just go through a wee period. It was lost on a few people, myself included, the key players missing from the side, with not just Abada and Hatate, but the centre halves chopping and changing. That's going to affect you and it did affect them.”