Why Josh Campbell is the most improved player in this season's Scottish Premiership

An observation from Saturday’s dismal 3-1 defeat to Motherwell which highlights the collective “off-day” experienced by the Hibs players was that even Josh Campbell didn’t play well.

The midfielder has been consistently one of his side’s better players this season and a huge reason why they’re still in the hunt for European football despite it feeling like quite a poor year for the majority. It’s night and day from how he was viewed by his own support, his own Hibernian brethren, when last season drew to a close. There were many worthwhile candidates, yet he was certainly high up the list of “would personally drive him to his next destination”.

Quite simply, he’s the single most improved player in this season’s top flight.

In the NBA, where they have an actual award for it, there is often a debate about whether a player has improved or whether they’ve just made a greater impact due to being given more responsibilities. For Campbell, this applies to an extent. He played a lot last season (2283 minutes) but was asked to play deeper a lot of the time, especially across the last few months of the campaign after Shaun Maloney replaced Jack Ross as Hibs manager.

Josh Campbell has been one of the most impressive and consistent performers for Hibs this season. Picture: SNS

In a deeper position he found it difficult to receive a pass from a defender and turn to look upfield. So often the ball would go back from where it came from, much to the annoyance of the Easter Road support.

But it’s not like he’s only played as a No.10 this season. He’s had games operating further back but his performances have remained consistent. He’s learning, adapting, gaining more confidence and is becoming a much better player as a result.

The obvious improvement is his impact around the penalty area. He’s scored nine times so far this season and, handily in the race for European football, seems to have a real vendetta against Aberdeen, who he has banged five goals past. He only struck once across the whole of the last campaign.

This is partially due to him taking more shots per game (1.52 to 1.38) but it’s largely down to how much better he’s got at striking the ball. His shooting accuracy last term was a pitiful 8.6 per cent. Taking more than one shot per match and hitting the target with fewer than one in ten was certainly something that needed to be worked on. Thankfully for Campbell and his team, those hours on the training ground have paid off with him jumping up to 35.6 per cent this season, which certainly isn’t bad for a midfielder.

Josh Campbell has shown a predilection for scoring against Aberdeen. He's got five goals against them, including a hat-trick, so far this season. Picture: SNS

His job from the No.10 position is to create as well as score and he’s made significant strides in that area also. Ideally you want an attacking midfielder having more than one shot assist a game, but Campbell’s 2022/23 mark of 0.88 is slightly better than average and is a marked improvement on the 0.35 per game he managed last term. (For comparison, Joe Newell is 1.57, Ewan Henderson 1.2 and Kyle Magennis 0.51 this term.)

A lot of this will be down to playing closer to goal and this is reflected in the statistics. Through passes attempted (0.32 to 0.54), passes into the final third (4.06 to 5.01), passes into the penalty box (1.38 to 1.72) and touches taken in the penalty area per game (1.58 to 1.96) have all taken notable jumps and mostly explain why he's produced more creativity. So it’s part of his game he’ll want to work on if he wants to be a fully rounded No.10 and play at a higher level.

He will, however, endear himself to any manager whether he goes off in search of a new challenge or sticks at Easter Road for the majority of his career. There isn’t a head coach in the world who doesn’t love a player who happily runs himself into the ground every game, sticks to tactical instructions and isn’t hesitant about mucking in defensively.

Even though he plays further forward, Campbell is still very much in the team for his ability to interrupt the opposition as, prior to the loss against Motherwell on Saturday, Hibs had put together a decent run of form with a midfield three that also included CJ Egan-Riley and Jimmy Jeggo. A triumvirate easy on the eye it perhaps isn’t, but it had a decent balance and put three players into the side who made it rather difficult for the opposition to play through.

Josh Campbell in action for the Scotland under-21s during the match against Turkey in May 2022. Picture: SNS

As expected, statistics like the number of defensive duels and loose ball duels he’s entered into have reduced slightly, but his efficiency has leapt up in just about every category. Percentage of defensive duels won has gone from 51.5 to 61.2, loose ball duels won (35.8 to 47.5), aerial duels won (32.2 to 46) and slide tackles won (from a measly 13.3 per cent to a whopping 42.9). So even though he’s engaging with opposition players less, he’s winning the ball back for his team more, particularly in the opposition half where he’s making more recoveries.

Manager Lee Johnson tipped the 22-year-old to earn Scotland international call-up in the near future. That feels like a bit of a stretch, especially when you consider the strength Scotland have at the attacking-midfielder position with Lewis Ferguson – excelling in the top flight of Italian football – struggling to earn more than a few minutes here and there and Celtic’s David Turnbull well down the pecking order even when fit.

It would be a surprise to see him earn international recognition anytime soon, but then it was a major surprise to see him improve from the levels he achieved last term to this one. If he keeps developing his game in the manner he has then it’s certainly not an idea which should be easily dismissed.

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