Analysing Celtic youngster Anderson's loan spell in Austria

Announced last summer, the partnership agreement will see Celtic send promising talents to the former Austrian champions to gain valuable first-team experience in a competitive league. 20-year-old Anderson and 21-year-old Oluwayemi were the first to head over with both signing season-long loan deals last August. Left-back Anderson and goalkeeper Oluwayemi had mixed success during their time in Austria with the latter restricted to just nine appearances after picking up an injury to his meniscus not long after the pair had made the move.

Anderson had more luck with the Scotland under-21 international staying injury free to make 22 appearances, playing almost three-quarters of the available league minutes as Admira finished seventh in the 16-team division. His season culminated in being named in the league’s team of the year. Playing mostly as a left wing-back in their favoured 3-4-3/3-4-2-1 and left-back when they changed to a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3, Anderson, who is also comfortable on his right foot, showcased his versatility by filling in on the opposite full-back/wing-back slot on occasions too.

Here we take a closer look at Anderson’s performances in Austria through his data, sourced from Wyscout. The dataset used for this includes all full-backs and wing-backs who played at least 1,000 league minutes in last season’s 2. Liga.  

Defensive duels

The first scatter shows how Anderson fared in his defensive duels, any attempt to dispossess an opposition player to stop an attack from progressing. Here we can see he was involved in a just under-average number of these types of duels, for a full-back/wing-back, in the league (6.68 per 90).

His 61.72 per cent win percentage in these types of duels was steady, just slightly above the average amongst his positional peers in Austria’s second tier.

Aerial duels

For aerial duels, Anderson was again around the average mark in terms of volume, this time involved in a just-above number of these types of duels per match (2.51 per 90).

At 5’9” (Transfermrkt), Anderson is probably never likely to dominate in the air but his aerial duel win rate was average, at 41.67 per cent. This was still slightly below the league average for players in his position, though.

General defending

The last defensive scatter here plots two other defending metrics, shots blocked and PAdj (possession adjusted) interceptions. In terms of shots blocked, Anderson averaged 0.26 per 90 and when it came to PAdj he posted 6.77 per 90, comfortably above average for a full-back/wing-back in 2. Liga and indicating good reading of the game.

Ball progression

The first possession-based scatter shows successful progressive passes (passes that attempt to advance a team significantly closer to the opposition’s goal) and progressive runs (a continuous ball control by one player attempting to draw the team significantly closer to the opponent’s goal).

Anderson averaged 4.23 successful progressive passes per 90, around one less than the average amongst his positional peers while his progressive runs (1.77 per 90) came in higher than most other full-backs/wing-backs in the league.

Chance creation

Full-backs are often judged more on their attacking output, especially at Celtic.

In this regard, Anderson encouragingly stood out for his chance creation while in Austria. His 0.63 key passes per 90, a pass that immediately creates a clear goal-scoring opportunity for a teammate was the fourth highest out of all full-backs/wing-backs in the league. The quality of the chances created was well above the league average for players in his positions too with Anderson ending the season with an expected assists value of 0.14 per 90. 

Goal threat

Anderson did grab one goal during his first full campaign as a professional. That one goal worked out at just 0.05 per 90, from an xG of 0.02 per 90, so the loan Celt was not a huge goal threat during his season in Austria’s second tier.

Percentile rank chart

The above percentile rank chart visualises some of the metrics already laid out in the scatters again, as well as a few others. Here we can see more clearly where Anderson stood out during his loan season.

As just seen, he did not offer much of a goal threat from full-back but was more of a creative force, his key passes/xA standing out here too. His attacking section also highlights a high number of touches in the opposition box (1.72 per 90). These attack-minded qualities also show through his heat map from last season, shown below. Mapping all his touches, we can see Anderson was much more active in the opposition half than he was in his own.

Back to his percentile rank chart, despite Admira averaging 57 per cent possession, the fifth highest in the league last season, some of Anderson’s possession volume ranks are not the highest. He does, encouragingly, rank above the 50th percentile rank for all the accuracy possession metrics, except long passes. His forward passing accuracy was the most impressive, just outside the top quartile.

This picture in possession, coupled with his progressive runs number, which comes through again, and his high volume of dribbles attempted (3.97 per 90), indicate that the pacey Anderson strengths in possession lie more in ball-carrying. In the defensive section of his chart, we can again see his relativity steady defensive duel win percentage and PAdj standing out as the most impressive in this part of his profile.

Conclusion

After an impressive spell in Austria, Anderson may well get an opportunity to impress in pre-season this summer, particularly given the club’s current lack of options at left-back. If Brendan Rodgers and his coaching staff feel he is not at the required level to make a first-team impact just yet, another loan, perhaps to a League One side in England or a bottom-six SPFL Premiership side would be a good next move for Anderson.

Whatever next for Anderson in the short-term, just a year after signing the partnership started, Celtic’s link-up with Admira already seems to be having the desired effect.