People keep pointing to five of our forwards not scoring as much as their equivalents and using that as the reason we’re behind in the table. I don’t buy it. Look at the team numbers and the context and the argument falls apart: as a group we’re producing similar goal returns, and the real problem is the number of draws we’ve picked up rather than a handful of individuals failing to hit the net.

Team numbers tell a different story

Ignore the headline-grabbing claim and check the basic totals. The user provides the club breakdowns and they matter. Rangers are credited with 21 goals and 10 assists in 102 appearances. Celtic are on 22 goals and 10 assists in 125 appearances. Those team figures don’t show a gulf. They suggest parity, not a collapse in attacking output from our squad.

Who actually makes a difference?

There’s one obvious outlier and the OP mentions him: Nygren with 15 in 27. That kind of return clearly helps. But beyond that, the Celtic individuals listed — Maeda (28, 7 goals 5 assists), Tierney (26, 5 goals no assists), Yang (22, 4 and 1), Engels (24, 4 and 2), Hatate (25, 2 and 2) — aren’t massively ahead of our front players when you look at the wider picture. So you can’t simply point at five names and say they’re the reason we’ve slipped behind.

Points are dropped, not goals

The real issue seems to be the draws. We’ve turned a few winnable games into shared points. That’s not always down to a single striker missing chances; it can be about tempo, how we manage games late on, substitutions and a lack of cutting edge at decisive moments. To be fair, we all want more goals from the likes of the forwards, but blaming five players without looking at the draws and match situations is lazy analysis.

In short: yes, Nygren’s numbers matter. Beyond him, the team totals show we’re not dramatically behind in goals. If we want to close the gap we need to turn draws into wins, not just point fingers at a handful of forwards.

Written by Angus1812: 11 April 2026

Tags: spfl