THIS season has been something of a breakthrough campaign for Ryan Christie. After catching the eye for Inverness, the attacking midfielder sealed a move to Celtic Park in 2015 before being sent back to the Highlands on loan for the remainder of the season.
A couple of loan spells at Aberdeen followed and although Christie became one of Derek McInnes’ key players at Pittodrie, some supporters still wondered if he would ever break into the starting XI at Celtic. This season, Christie has answered that question in emphatic fashion.
The 24-year-old has proven to be an important player for Celtic this season and has broken into the national side simultaneously; not bad at all from a player who was on the fringes at Parkhead when the season began. We’ve taken a look at Christie’s stats over the last few seasons to see where - and how - the midfielder has developed into a top talent for club and country.
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The chart above details Christie’s actions per 90 minutes in all competitions for each of the last three seasons and we can see a clear change in the playmaker’s approach during that time. During the 2016/17 season, Christie was banging in the goals for Aberdeen and was one of McInnes’ most effective attacking outlets. But since then, Christie has become more of a traditional playmaker, focussing instead on setting up chances for his team-mates than going for goal himself.
That’s not to say he’s turned goal-shy, of course. While his goal return might not be as high as it was in 2016/17, this campaign Christie is scoring 0.35 goals per 90 minutes - an excellent return from a player in midfield. We can also see that Christie is dribbling less this season - this is probably in part down to the fact that he is afforded less space to drive into at Celtic compared to Aberdeen - but it’s Christie’s passing stats that really stand out here.
At Aberdeen, Christie was averaging around 37 passes per 90 minutes but that figure has jumped to 50.5 this season. Similarly, the number of key passes - passes that lead directly to a shot - that Christie attempts has increased, while his assist rate has more than doubled since 2016/17.
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While this first set of figures details the change in Christie’s role on the pitch, the graphic above highlights Christie’s success rate of these actions. Across the board, Christie is proving to be more effective player and the midfielder has come on leaps and bounds since the season began.
Not only is Christie’s shot accuracy as high as it has ever been but, curiously, his dribbling success rate has shot up by around 13% this season, despite the fact that he’s attempting fewer on average. This shows the tactical awareness that Christie has developed this campaign; he’s choosing his moments when to drive with the ball, and choosing them well.
More than anything else, though, Christie’s passing has improved significantly. He’s hitting far more passes than he ever has, yet he’s doing so more successfully too. 84.5% of his passes find their intended target, a highly impressive return for a player so attack-minded. Even when we break it down and examine Christie’s passing accuracy into the final third, this figure stands at a highly-respectable 74.6%; few attacking midfielders in the Premiership can match this level of output.
Brendan Rodgers deserves a lot of credit for Christie’s development, as does McInnes. There are a number of noteworthy examples of players who developed very well under the former Celtic boss - Callum McGregor and James Forrest come to mind here - and it remains to be seen if Christie can similarly push on under the guidance of Neil Lennon. Christie’s career has been on an upward trajectory for some time now and at 24 years old, can continue to do so. The last few seasons have seen Christie’s role on the pitch become more refined and if he can continue to develop as he has, the former Inverness player can become a key part of Celtic’s midfield in the coming years.
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