A GOAL on his full Scotland debut versus Armenia, rising Larsson-esque at the back post to angle a header into the opposite corner, surely cemented Anthony Ralston as the unlikely cult hero of the season (is there a cup for that? Steady now – ed).
It is the unlikeliest tale. A player with one appearance in the previous season, and way down the pecking order, was suddenly the only senior right-back at the club as Celtic embarked on the Ange Postecoglou adventure.
While he performed admirably, the acquisition of an international full-back from high-ranking Croatia in Josip Juranovic was expected to lead to him shrinking back into the shadows as a low-key squad member.
In reality, the effervescent Juranovic and the sturdy Ralston were effectively rotated across the latter part of a successful Celtic season.
By season's end Ralston racked up 3,862 minutes (the fifth-most in the champions’ squad) as well as five goals and nine assists.
In the SPFL, Ralston was ranked 11th for total scoring contribution (goals + assists). Another right-back, James Tavernier, was top but Ralston doesn’t take penalties. He had more scoring contributions in the league than, for example, Fashion Sakala, Liam Boyce, Kyogo Furuhashi, Tom Rogic and Kemar Roofe.
Was this a fluke, or has the brickie earned his hard hat? Let's use some StatsBomb data to find out by comparing him with Juranovic and Tavernier...
Full-back attributes
Here are the respective StatsBomb radars comparing Ralston with, firstly, Juranovic and then Tavernier:
Looking across the comparable data we see that it is only in passing accuracy and fouling the opposition that Juranovic comes out top on the key full-back metrics.
Tavernier scores best on number of interceptions and pressures applied. He also completes slightly more dribbles.
It is probably surprising how little difference there is in the performance metrics.
However, it is Ralston who rates highest in terms of number of tackles per 90 minutes, the xG added by his build-up passes, the number of turnovers forced and the volume of aerial duel successes.
Additionally, he is the one of the three who is dribbled past or tackled by the opposition least.
Winger attributes
A key part of the full-back role at both clubs is attacking. StatsBomb has a 'winger' template that we can use to compare the three players in this manner:
According to winger attribute data, Ralston is well ahead of Juranovic in these key attacking metrics. Let’s look at the comparable data:
The Scot has the highest xG per 90 and the highest xA (expected assists). Note that the xA value is for open-play passes only. Tavernier is able to rack up larger xA contributions from his set-piece deliveries.
Ralston also has the most touches in the opposition box but the lowest volume of shots. Juranovic has the most accurate crossing performance (41 per cent success). Otherwise, Tavernier takes the most shots and completes the most dribbles.
Layering in some of my own data for the Celtic boys, Ralston also outperforms Juranovic as regards 'pack passing' (forward passes that take opponents out of the game).
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Ralston completes 9.79 pack passes for an average pass packing score of 53.44 while Juranovic completes slightly more (9.88) but for a lower average PPS (49.65).
Where Juranovic has a clear advantage is on the other side of that transaction. That is, receiving pack passes. This is a proxy for off-the-ball movement, positioning and control. Juranovic averages a 42.64 pack receive score compared to 37.59 for Ralston.
This is at the heart of why, despite the data above that clearly shows a case could be made for Ralston to be ranked higher than Tavernier and Juranovic (and especially given he is three and seven years younger, respectively) most fans would instinctively select the other two first.
Conclusions
Ralston has some weaknesses that are not being reflected in the data. This is to do with the quality of his first touch, his recovery pace, and his ability to find space off the ball as the inverted full-back (which can be seen as per the pack receive data).
If we relied just on the data, Ralston could be seen as the premier right-back in the league. However, these other factors come into play that perhaps are difficult to discern from the available data.
That’s partly what makes Ralston so fascinating.
What is true is that his career trajectory is now on a steep upward curve. It will be intriguing to see whether he can continue to improve over the likes of Juranovic and Tavernier such that his weaknesses become less an issue given the strength of much of his underlying performance data.
He's not such a simple brickie after all.
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