Colby Donovan: How Celtic's Rising Star is Breaking the Mould

One of the few positives in Celtic’s start to the season has been the impressive form of academy graduate Colby Donovan. This, alongside Camilo Durán's lightning start to life in Glasgow, has provided the sole green shoots in an otherwise mixed opening few months for Martin O'Neill's side. The Glaswegian's performances have been deservedly rewarded with a new long-term deal, tying him to the club until the summer of 2031. Now 20, Donovan is closing in on half a century of appearances for his boyhood club, with 48 appearances so far.

The eye test tells us that he is an aggressive, committed full-back - strong in aerial and ground duels but prone to the odd blunder, whether that be making the wrong decision on the ball or being caught out of position without it. Those errors come with the territory of playing young players and are not a slight on the 20-year-old, but what does his performance data tell us?

Donovan featured in all of Celtic's opening 10 games, starting eight and racking up 730 minutes altogether. The following analysis is based on those first 10 games:

Using performance data from FootyStats, Donovan ranks highly across defensive metrics, impressively winning six ground duels per game alongside 0.74 blocks. This backs up the eye test that he is strong in the tackle and possesses good defensive instincts. However, the one worrying metric that sticks out is "dribbled past," where he ranks in the 11th percentile, having been bypassed nine times in 10 games this season. This highlights a potential weakness in his one-on-one defending. For comparison, Kieran Tierney was dribbled past just five times in the same period.

There have been many issues in Celtic's game model this season, in particular their out-of-possession structure, which has seen the team look extremely open and vulnerable when defending in transition. This environment, alongside being partnered with fellow inexperienced academy graduate Dane Murray on the right-hand side of the defence, has no doubt contributed to Donovan being left isolated in one-on-one situations. As always, the truth most likely lies somewhere in between.

Offensively, the full-back has yet to register a goal contribution, but he ranks highly in crosses and successful passes, as most full-backs would when playing for a side that dominates possession as much as Celtic.

Conversely, his key passes, assists, and expected assists (xA) rank low in comparison to his compatriot on the left flank, who had completed 17 key passes during the same period.

Tierney's chance creation performance data is night and day by comparison, though for a player of his quality, that is not unexpected. It must also be said that Celtic have been remarkably dominant on the left side, with the majority of the team's build-up play and attacks occurring there.

So what does this tell us? Defensively, apart from occasionally being caught out of position, Donovan's numbers have been very good. Unlike many full-backs in the modern era, he shows a genuine appetite and hunger to defend. Offensively, Donovan still has plenty of room to grow, albeit he is being held to the lofty standards of Tierney and Alistair Johnston. As he continues to develop and gain confidence, the hope is that his decision-making and attacking output will improve as well.

As an academy graduate, Colby Donovan has shown exceptional resilience and quality to break into the Celtic first team, demonstrating the raw attributes required to become a top-tier player for the club. He is a rare exception to the rule of academy players making the grade at Parkhead and, as such, he should be given the time and space to grow and develop.