Benjamin Nygren’s winning strike for Celtic at Pittodrie on Wednesday night took his tally to 19 goals for the season.
And 15 of those have come in the Scottish Premiership – more than any other Celtic player – making him the league’s second-top scorer behind Motherwell’s Tawanda Maswanhise (16).
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Not bad for a £1.7m attacking midfielder. But just how important have Nygren’s goals been for Celtic?
Wednesday night marked the Swede’s fifth winner for Celtic in the league this season – only Maswanhise (six) has netted more decisive goals.
What’s perhaps more important to Celtic is that Nygren’s 15 goals have been worth 11 points to Martin O’Neill’s side – no player in the Premiership has scored more important goals.
To put that into perspective, without Nygren’s goals Celtic would be fourth in the league on 47 points, just one ahead of Hibs in fifth and 16 behind league leaders Hearts.
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And there’s more to the midfielder’s attacking prowess than just crucial goals. In fact, lot of his statistics this season read like those of a striker.
Nygren has the most goals and assists (19) of any player in the division and has had the second most total shots (71) behind Claudio Braga (76).
His shot conversion rate of just over 21% is the third best in the division behind Maswanhise (24%) and Hibernian’s Jamie McGrath (23%).
“They are relying big time on the goals of Nygren, a player who’s been an enigma,” Herald football writer Stephen McGowan told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.
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“I think it’s the only word for him because he doesn’t look like a midfielder who’s going to control the game. He doesn’t really dictate the play, doesn’t make big tackles.
“You’re not really sure if he’s a number eight or a number 10 or whatever, but he scores big goals. Ninteen for Celtic and they need that because they are struggling up front.”
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