Celtic's Jota 2.0 is coming... Scottish football should brace itself

Goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist was also added to Ange Postecoglou’s squad following the expiration of his contract at Dundee United. However, there was one rumoured incoming in particular that Celtic fans were waiting for on tenterhooks: the return of Jota on a permanent deal.

The superstar from Portugal made a huge impression while on loan last season, scoring 13 goals and providing 14 assists in 40 appearances in all competitions.

That meant Celtic were always going to be keen to exercise the more-than-reasonable £6.5million option-to-buy fee that was included in the winger’s loan deal and, following a few holiday stops over the summer, the 23-year-old landed back at Parkhead earlier this month to sign a five-year deal.

Analysing Jota’s numbers from last season show why fans were so delighted with his return on a permanent deal.

The following scatter graphs, which compare Jota to all other wide midfielders and wingers in last season’s Scottish Premiership who played a minimum of 800 league minutes, highlight just how much of a standout he was.

Ahead of the new season, they can also offer insight into a few areas of his game where he can improve even more in the season ahead.

Looking at his goals and assists to start with, the scatter graph above illustrates how Jota’s goal tally compared to his league counterparts last season.

His 10 open-play league goals gave Jota a non-penalty goals per 90 minutes number of 0.39 with a sustainable expected goals number just below that at 0.35.

These numbers put him just behind Liel Abada, who scored at a similar rate albeit from a higher xG number, and Daizen Maeda (although some of his goals total will include those from his time in J1 League between July and December).

In assists, Jota’s total of 11 throughout the season translated into just under one every two games at 0.43 per 90. This was the highest number produced of any wide midfielder or winger in last season’s Scottish Premiership.

Abada was just as productive. The Israeli recorded the same number for his expected assists per 90 (0.31) as Jota. It may be down to factors such as poor finishing from team-mates or excellent opposition goalkeeping that meant Abada, who ended up with a total of six for the season, didn’t quite reach the number of actual assists as Jota.

Having seen how Jota’s output compares, further analysis of the rest of his game can highlight those specific areas where he excelled most last season and those where he could still make some improvements.

Jota’s output is already up there with the best in the league. However, his shooting accuracy would be one area where he could take his game to the next level. The above scatter graph shows that he took the highest number of shots per 90 last season (three) of all wide midfielders and wingers in the league.

His shots-on-target rate (36.8 per cent) is right on the average mark. With the number of shots that he is likely to take again next season, improving his number of efforts on target would make Jota even more prolific in front of goal.

The Portuguese's dribbling talents are clear to see in this next scatter graph. As with his volume of shots, no other wide midfielder or winger attempted more dribbles than Jota last season (11.5 per 90).

Only St Mirren’s Jordan Jones came close with 9.8 per 90 with Ryan Kent of Rangers further back on 9.0 per 90.

Jota’s success rate for his dribbles, 60.9 per cent, was also impressive and comfortably above the average of those players included in the dataset.

When it comes to crossing, Jota was simply in a league of his own last season compared to others in similar positions on the pitch. He attempted an average of just less than eight crosses per 90 last season with James Forrest and Jones being the only players to get near that number (with 5.5 each per 90, although neither played a huge number of games).

Jota also comfortably boasted the best accuracy percentage (45.3 per cent) for his crossing with almost every second cross hitting its intended target in the league last season.

Looking at just passes per 90 and overall pass completion percentage won’t tell too much about how Jota and other wide midfielders and wingers in the league performed in possession.

So for the passing scatter key passes, passes that immediately create a clear goal-scoring opportunity for a team-mate and passes to the penalty area are shown to assess performance in possession in and around the opposition box.

Once again, Jota is out on his own here. He played on average 7.2 passes into the penalty area per 90 last season, over two more passes than the player with the next most (Abada). His accuracy rate for these types of passes, which is not shown in the scatter graph, was also the third-highest in the dataset at 58.2 per cent.

For key passes, he executed 1.4 per 90, which was the most of any other wide midfielder or winger in the league.

The final scatter shown here is one other key area where Jota could make some adjustments in his game.

His 2.9 possession-adjusted interceptions per 90 were below average for a wide midfielder or winger last season while his defensive duel success percentage of just 49.6 per cent was also slightly below average. His 5.1 defensive duels per 90, which is not shown on the scatter, was once again below average compared to his league counterparts. 

With everything Jota offers with the ball, being less effective off the ball is potentially permissible. However, he may still have to make some gains in this area of his game, especially for when Celtic step up to the Champions League in September.

It is always expected that Celtic and Rangers players will perform well when compared to other players within Scotland across the metrics shown in these scatter graphs yet it must be said that Jota was also a standout when it came to the fundamental attributes of a wide midfielder/winger which were assessed here.

His dribbling, crossing and passing are at a truly elite level. Providing he does not suffer any major injury problems he looks set to absolutely light it up in the Scottish Premiership again this coming season.