Celtic play a football brand, meaning we have a larger percentage of possession than our rivals.
In fact, home and away, we average over 70% of the possession on any given match day [Transfermarkt] which makes the following stats regarding fouls awarded against us domestically even more baffling.
In Celtic’s 5 Champions League games we’ve committed an average of 8.4 fouls per game on an average of 45.6% possession.
In our last 5 SPFL games, our average committed fouls are 13.4 on a possession average of 68%.
That needs to be explained.
— TheMaestro1888 (@TheMaestro1888) October 30, 2022
So, if we have more of the ball, how are we committing more fouls in the SPFL than in the Champions League where we have less of it?
It’s really bizarre and one that needs to be looked at.
Now, I’m not really one for referee conspiracies (shock/horror) but these stats are rather telling and it could point to three things.
One, the referees are getting conned by the opposition players as they throw themselves to the ground at every little touch they receive from a Celtic player. If that’s the case, it needs to be called out.
Two, they are just plain incompetent and cannot tell the difference between our players being fouled when we are in possession.
Three, the ultimate conspiracy theory of the refs are working against our club.
Now I know there are certain referees within our game that have allegiances toward a certain club in our league but would they really put their credibility on the line by being so blatantly biased against us?
You would like to think not and now with the dawn of VAR, that would be easily debunked but looking at the performance of the officials in the Hearts game at Tynecastle, it is little wonder there are suspicions amongst our support that the refs are against us.
All the stats in the world are of no concern to our board if the balance sheet is in the red.
All of the Buster Keaton is being taught from the tactics room ! How many times have you witnessed a shriek of utter pain ,to gain a foul ,then 5 seconds later the guys running about the pitch like 2 year old ? Take huge Alfoodo as an example . A 50/50 tackle ,he’s rolling around looking to see if the refs watching , with all that blubber insulating him ,he goes down like an elephant ,shot on safari ! It’s blind Lemon Jefferson stuff .
I’m fed up saying this I have been talking to my friends on our bus,cannot understand how we are supposed to commit so many fouls,without our players getting red or yellow cards.The so called fair referees who are in charge of our games get away with whatever they want and are never called to explain themselves,this is a ploy used by Mr Beaton to break up the flow of our game.amd his masonic pals are copying him.Knowing the SFA will not make them accountable for honest mistakes
We had 3 times the possession of livingstone but managed to commit the same amount of fouls, honest mistakes!
Stats can be deceiving, especially in isolation. Domestically we press more and get closer in the press. We also have more possession and lose possession with more players committed forward and then foul to stop the counter on occasion.
That said I think there are elements of 1 and 2 in play in every game I watch. Any time we are pressing opposition players (especially when in their box) and they throw themselves to the ground and handle the ball the refs almost always cop out and give the foul against us.
Or 4 we fight really hard to get the ball back when we’re out of possession, and SPFL players are easier to catch than our European opponents