TO bastardise a famous line from George Orwell; all goals are equal, but some are more equal than others. When we look at a forward’s goal tally for the season, all that is taken into account is whether or not the ball crossed the line, and how many times this happened. Context is simply an irrelevant detail.
But context is an important thing, and something that sticks in the minds of football fans. You might not remember a player banging in a fifth goal in a demolition of another team, but tight games decided by a single goal often live long in the memory. Keeping track of the number of goals a player has scored throughout the season is all well and good, but it doesn’t necessarily tell the full story.
Take someone like David Turnbull at Motherwell, for instance. The midfielder has broken into the first team at Fir Park and is enjoying a fine season in Lanarkshire. If you look at the top scorer charts, you’ll see that Turnbull has a tally of six goals: not bad at all for a player in his debut season, particularly one plying his trade in midfield. But what isn’t revealed is how valuable each of these goals were to his side.
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Of Turnbull’s six goals, five were match-winners. Were it not for Turnbull’s interventions, in other words, Motherwell would be 10 points worse off at the moment. When this background is added to Turnbull’s goal haul, they appear more valuable. This context matters: all goals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
To that end, we’ve taken a look to see which Premiership player has scored the most match-winning goals this season. You can check out the list below that features the Premiership’s top 12 most-decisive players this season.
As we can see, no other player has made the difference for his team as much as Odsonne Edouard has at Celtic. The Frenchman has 12 league goals to his name this season but, crucially, half of them have won the game for the champions. No other player has earned his team more points than Edouard this season, and there is an argument to be made that he is the Premiership’s most decisive player.
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Turnbull, Alfredo Morelos and Steven Naismith come in just behind Edouard, having scored five match-winners each this season. James Tavernier and Aberdeen’s Sam Cosgrove come in just behind this trio with four match-winning strikes apiece, and there are a host of players who have made the difference on three occasions for their respective clubs this season.
So while Morelos tops the scoring charts at present and looks to be the likeliest recipient of the inaugural Tartan Boot award, there is undoubtedly an argument to be made that he hasn’t had as much of a direct impact on fixtures as Celtic’s record signing. Edouard’s season has been hampered by injury but more than any other Premiership player, he has chalked up wins for his team that would not have otherwise happened. Morelos is probably the league’s best striker this season, but it is Edouard who is the most decisive.
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