Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10 | OneFootball

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The Celtic Star

·29 June 2022

Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10

Article image:Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10

Back in July last year, Celtic announced the signing of their third new recruit of the summer, Israeli teenager Liel Abada from Maccabi Petah Tikva on a five-year contract. As with most of Ange Postecoglou’s recruits, not many in Scotland had heard of the player before the Australian brought him to the club, and with the transfer fee being £3.5m many were surprised that the club were willing to pay so much for a youngster playing in the Israeli league.

Article image:Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10

Like with so many others however, it didn’t take us long to quickly realise that Ange Postecoglou has an eye for a player as the young man came out of the blocks flying. The 19-year-old was plunged straight into team at the beginning of the campaign with the new manager having no other options due to lack of depth in his newly created squad. Abada responded excellently, scoring on his debut in the Champions League qualifier against FC Midtjylland.


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In his first 3 league games he managed two goals and two assists as well as a goal and assist during the Europa League qualifiers. A terrific effort from someone so young who was still finding his feet after his first ever move away from home. It was unreasonable to assume he could keep that kind of form up long term and predictably his form waned slightly and his performances became a bit more hit and miss.

Article image:Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10

Celtic’s Liel Abada celebrates scoring his goal. Photo Jeff Holmes

Saying that however, he continued to contribute in all competitions, with goals and assists continuing to come in the League, Europe and in the League Cup before a welcome rest over the winter break. As the football returned so did Abada’s early season form, as he netted in just our second game back against Alloa in the Scottish Cup.

That goal sparked another purple patch for the young winger, as he went on to register three goals and three assists in Celtic’s next three league games against Dundee United, theRangers and Motherwell. As happened earlier in the season however, his form tailed off once again, and this time he started to find it harder to get into the starting eleven with Ange Postecoglou starting to prefer the industry of January signing Daizen Maeda out on the wing.

Article image:Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10

Liel Abada celebrates:

With his game time curtailed Abada was relatively quiet during the latter part of the season, mainly being used as a substitute. He did still contribute however, putting in plenty of effort when he did make appearances and never looked like he was in a huff regarding losing his place in the team. His stats throughout the season are exceptional for a player of his age, especially one experiencing playing in a foreign country for the first time. In total he played 54 games for Celtic last season, scoring 15 goals and supplying 11 assists. A fantastic return from the Israeli.

Earlier in the season Abada proved his versatility by playing up front on his own at times when we were dealing with the nightmare scenario of all our strikers being kept out due to injury. He did better in that role than I expected but with Celtic now having 3 players who could be regarded as strikers and talk that Ange would like another this summer I doubt he will be required to fill that position again in the future.

Article image:Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10

: Kyogo Furuhashi of Celtic celebrates with teammate Liel Abada after scoring their side’s first goal during the UEFA Europa League group G match between Ferencvarosi TC and Celtic FC at Groupama Arena on November 04, 2021 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Laszlo Szirtesi/Getty Images)

I have been thoroughly impressed by the young winger since he joined the club. Yes, he may not have made as much an impact on the Celtic faithful as say Kyogo and Jota but if you look at his stats he’s been every bit as good as his teammates. We also have to take his age into the equation. His two partners in attack are vastly more experienced than the Israeli.

I think because he was a £3.5m signing we maybe expect him to be constantly on his game but I feel that maybe we have been guilty of expecting too much too soon from Abada. His blistering start in the hoops on top of that purple patch he went through after the winter break possibly intensified that expectation. We would never expect the likes of Owen Moffat or Adam Montgomery to be constantly performing at the highest level due to their age yet Abada is in that same age group.

Liel Abada, at only 20 years old, is a huge talent. Yes it will take him a while to find that consistency but we must afford him that time and let him develop. He will have a battle on his hands next season with not only Daizen Maeda challenging him for a starting position, but he will also have to contend with James Forrest, who we hope will be returning to full fitness after recently being handed a new contract.

Article image:Celtic Winger Liel Abada’s Season Review – 8/10

IMAGO / PA Images Liel Abada celebrates. Photo Andrew Milligan

This competition for places can only benefit all three players and as long as we can seal the permanent signing of Jota this summer, we are certainly well covered in the wing areas. Last season Abada had to play more often than I imagine Ange Postecoglou would have wanted him to during his first campaign in Scotland, but he dealt with that huge workload well and proved he is more than capable of becoming a permanent fixture in the Celtic starting eleven.

In conclusion I think Abada exceeded expectations last season. A return of 15 goals and 11 assists from someone so young only settling into a new club and new country is an incredible return. For last seasons efforts I am going to award him 8/10. I think there is a lot more to come from Abada and I’m excited to see how he progresses under Ange Postecoglou.

Conall McGinty

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