One of the oddities surrounding Celtic - in what is generally an oasis of calm - is the Greg Taylor situation.

Taylor is now in his fifth season as Celtic’s left-sided defender. That in itself is cause for recognition in modern football that someone could hold down a starting spot at a club the size and expectations of the Scottish champions. Yet his contract is up at the end of the season and there is little chatter about a resolution.

It doesn’t stop the doubters, of course, and I would be disingenuous if I didn’t count myself amongst them. Lacking physical power and height, and with nowhere near top-end recovery pace, Taylor is not the specimen Brendan Rodgers had in mind when he talked about getting ‘power and pace’ into the team.

He’s never been that defensively suspect in truth. Vulnerable to a back post aerial, but surprisingly aerially competent, what he lacks in pace he makes up for in physical endurance and sheer endeavour and willingness to be what Gordon Strachan called ‘a good teammate’. In other words, this is a highly intelligent man never mind a player. He has found a way to be useful.

Many of us were intrigued by how under Ange Postecoglou he adapted successfully to the inverted fullback role. A central midfielder as a youth, occupying the central areas where your decision-making must be 360 degrees aware, Taylor added ball progression to his game and deep creativity. It seems under Rodgers that he continues to be allowed an element of freedom to come in off his wide area and get involved with the midfield.

Last Sunday’s highly entertaining 5-2 League Cup win over a very coherent and well-coached Falkirk side saw him enter the fray on 60 minutes and help turn a tricky tie back in the champion's favour. Soon to be 27 and in his peak footballing years, there is a sense of increasing maturity about Taylor.

Celtic have started the season very well, of course, does his performances reflect that?

Taylor overview

Using the StatsBomb fullback view (this covers SPFL matches only), I was surprised by the conclusions.

In essence, when compared to league games from last season, his defensive metrics all trend upwards and his ball progression downwards. Not expected. More defensive actions dribbled past less and generated fewer turnovers, but with less pressing.

As regards ball progression, a much lower passing on-ball value (OBV), and nearly half the volume of deep progressions.  Such has been Celtic’s early season dominance that I would have expected the reverse to be true with fewer defensive actions, more pressing and more ball progression.

One thought is that Celtic have tended to get the hard work done early. Apart from the home game against Heart of Midlothian, the pattern was an early goal and 2-0 up by the 40th minute. A game state whereby Celtic could control matters and keep opponents at arm’s length may be partly why such numbers emerge.

Taylor deeper

Sometimes, given such a small sample context, we must go deeper into the hundreds of metrics collected to discern any shifts in player performance.

A simple start is the sheer volume of passes. Arguably Taylor’s most productive season was season two of Postecoglou, where he was the mainstay of a highly functioning and domestically dominant side. Completed open play passes this season off 66.52 are above those from 202-23 – 66.4. At the same time, progressive runs are down from 1.61 to 0.42 a trend consistent over five seasons. Is Taylor being encouraged to trust his passing and not risk on-ball dribbling?

Taylor consistently loses over ten open play passes per game but for the first time, he is under that at 9.5. A momentary data blip or further signs of enhanced decision-making? Taylor was packed, taken out of the game by opponents forward passes or dribbles, 7.75 per 90 minutes last season – high for a defensive player. This season that is down to 6.15 but we will see whether that trend is maintained when stressed at the Champions League level. On its own, it is an indicator of better positioning.

In line with the StatsBomb data, his packing score – average pack passing score – is down from 61.74 to 59.25 with around two fewer pack passes per game completed. But also, his pack turnover rate has decreased from 15.93 score per game to 13. In other words, the impact of his losing the ball has been lessened this season.

Chances created are in line with last season's 1.54 to 1.52 but his open play xA is well up from 0.15 to 0.2. Also increasing is his involvement in change creation from deeper with secondary assist volume up 1.28 to 1.54 and xA from those chances 0.19 to 0.23.

Conclusion

What I take from all of the above comes back to one of the themes I try and focus on when throwing a lot of data at you. None of the above is primarily about doing more, working harder, and generating volume.

Mainly, the subtle changes in Taylor’s performance data speak to working smarter and making better decisions. An increase in quality over quantity.

As I mentioned all of this will be highly stressed at the Champions League level. But for now, Taylor is displaying evidence of what he is – a very intelligent player moving into his peak years.