Celtic 1-3 Rangers: second half turnaround
The starting line-ups
A typically fiery Old Firm derby saw Celtic lose their 100% record, and Rangers maintain theirs.
Celtic were unchanged from their win last week at Dundee United, starting with a 4-4-2 system that saw Georgios Samaras dropping deep to the left.
Rangers made two changes from their midweek draw with Valencia, bringing in Lee McCulloch and Kyle Lafferty. Their shape was more like 4-5-1, with Lafferty out wide on the left, Steven Naismith on the right, and McCulloch in the holding role in the centre of midfield.
The game started in the expected fashion, with a booking after just one minute and ten seconds, tackles flying in and both sides generally looking to hit the ball long from defence to attack, bypassing the midfield.
After a few minutes Rangers started to play the ball around the midfield, taking advantage of their one-man advantage in that zone, and seeking to drag the Celtic midfielders out of position. Anthony Stokes and Shaun Maloney played narrow to try and compensate, and the Rangers full-backs didn’t seek to get forward and exploit this space.
Early injury
The game changed after 15 minutes when Maloney was forced to depart through injury. Neil Lennon brought on Efrain Juarez, (who could have been a straight swap) but in making this change Lennon also altered the formation of the side, as Celtic switched to a 4-2-3-1ish system, with Juarez floating around in an attacking central midfield role, and Samaras stationed permanently on the left.
The nature of two 4-5-1 systems meant that the game became congested in the midfield zone, with few players getting any time on the ball. The one exception to this was Ki Sung-Yeung, who dropped deep to receive the ball from his centre-backs, and got Celtic playing well in the centre of the pitch. His technical quality and positional sense were superior to the five other central midfielders in the first half, and Ki became the key player.
Lafferty forced back
Celtic reshaped with a 4-2-3-1 after Maloney's injury
The other interesting battle was down Rangers’ left, where Mark Wilson got forward to good effect, pushing Lafferty back into his own third of the pitch. Lafferty tracked well but made a couple of mistakes, making this a good route of attack for Celtic, although no real chances came from it. It was very useful from a defensive point of view, however, because as Lafferty was the midfielder most likely to link up with Kenny Miller, Rangers had no support for their lone striker. Miller hardly had a kick in the first half.
Set-pieces
With the midfield battle overwhelmingly congested, and little creativity on show, it was no surprise that the opening two goals – one from either side, either side of the break – came from set-pieces. Gary Hooper put Celtic ahead by converting a corner at the far post, before Glenn Loovens turned into his own net following a free-kick.
Those goals may not have come from open play, but their timing did reflect the dominant side at those points. Celtic ended the first half extremely strongly, with Ki dictating the game and Celtic forcing three corners in quick succession. Rangers, however, were much better in the second half – they played higher up the pitch and their midfielders closed down Ki more quickly.
Rangers take charge
The other effect of Rangers moving higher up the pitch was that Miller received more support. It generally came from the central midfielders rather than the wide players, and this resulted in Miller’s first goal – Maurice Edu got forward to meet Naismith’s well-weighted forward pass, and after he’d forced Daniel Majstorovic into a panicky clearance, the ball dropped to Miller to volley home. It’s worth mentioned here that Rangers were 4-1-4-1 whereas Celtic looked more like 4-2-3-1 – so Rangers had two central midfielders with license to attack, Celtic only really had one.
Rangers were in the ascendency, squeezing the space by pushing high up the pitch, and a third goal came from the penalty spot.
Lennon made the obvious switch, putting Samaras back upfront and going 4-4-2 again, but this just resulted in the same situation as in the first 15 minutes when Rangers were the better side – they had one fewer midfield player and with Rangers sitting deep and getting nine men behind the ball, Celtic looked out of ideas, only creating a couple of scrappy half-chances.
In fact, Rangers were probably more dangerous on the counter-attack and should have scored a fourth – some poor decision-marking on the counter-attack let them down here. Their 4-1-4-1 system simply matched Celtic’s 4-4-2 late on, with McCulloch a spare man between the lines, and Celtic’s compensation, a free centre-back, not much help when looking for a goal.
Conclusion
The pattern of the game hinged on two major factors – first, the early injury to Maloney and Celtic’s subsequent rejig, which resulted in a congested midfield. Secondly, Rangers moving up the pitch in the second half, which both put pressure on Ki, and gave Miller more support – simultaneously limiting Celtic’s chances of scoring, and increasing their own.
It was also notable that no second half changes affected the overall pattern of play – Lennon was forced to use Juarez early on – his pace and direct running may have been a useful trump card when Rangers tired late on.
Celtic 1-3 Rangers: second half turnaround
Good game with relatively few traditional Old Firm incidents. Rangers benefitted from experience and a squad with few changes over the past few seasons, and the draw with Valencia midweek surely helped inspire their confidence.
The main difference I could see was the pressing of the two sides. Celtic were shocking at this. Whilst Rangers are generally very good at keeping a shape whilst closing down in numbers, this has been a serious problem for Celtic the last few years. Rangers were more aggressive, better at winning the ball back and this began to show in the second half. I noticed, actually, that at goal kicks Edu and Miller (their two fastest players) seemed to have been instructed in the 2nd half to close down the centre-backs as soon as they got the ball, which led to hopeless long balls up the park and Rangers regaining possession.
I also said before the game that Maloney would be key. However, he’s clearly at his best as the link-man in a 4-2-3-1, rather than out wide. Although it hardly made much of a difference, we rarely play well when we go 4-4-2 and Lennon should have realised that 4-2-3-1 was the best choice.
The dive for the penalty (which was blatant) and the referee not sending McCulloch off after repeated fouls didn’t help. But Celtic didn’t deserve to win – we were woeful. There is a lack of fight from this team and the manner in which we capitulated and then looked totally rudderless just reflected this.
I’d have to say that Lennon got his big decisions wrong though – the formation played into their hands when they were obviously going to look to frustrate us, the inclusion of Ki (who played quite well in the first half but wanted far too much time on the ball) and the lack of fight after our goal (which probably came at a bad time) are all things he has to take responsibility for. His use of substitutions has been a bit of a concern so far and it showed today – he didn’t really change things when Rangers were defending the lead comfortably and it seemed inevitable that they’d see the game out.
Nice article, I think you got it pretty much spot on. However, and I know this isn’t anything to do with tactics, but it always seems glaringly obvious to me that SPL officials are woefully poor. Whether or not this is deliberate in order to aid the blue half of Glasgow remains uncertain, however after countless game changing decisions in recent years, not just in Old Firm matches but over the course of each season, one would perhaps err towards the affirmative.
Jesus Christ, get a grip mate.
Can’t argue with much of this and reads like a shorter and better written version of my own tactical analysis.
The main difference I found was that Samaras was always starting on the left and Maloney began in the 4-2-3-1 hole behind the striker. This wasn’t really clear though seeing as the opening spell was so explosive, it was difficult to keep tags of exactly who was where and before we knew it Maloney was withdrawn.
Maloney has been our best player this year so it was a massive blow and furthermore he’s the only guy who can really play in that 4-2-3-1 hole. Juarez is a little too one dimensional and focused more of stamina and being direct, not at all subtle like Maloney.
Without that creative spark far up the pitch we were left with Stokes (comprehensively dealt with) and Samaras – both strikers played out of position out wide. Samaras had a decent game, probably one of our best on the day but his decision making in the final third isn’t good enough to cut it regularly in these types of games – yes against Hamilton, Falkirk etc but not at this level.
The main thing I would add though is really this played directly into Rangers hands and was probably entirely overseen and forced by Smith – clog up the midfield, force Celtic into high-balls (our weakness, their strength) and hit us hard on the counter. Worked a treat so well done him.
Out of interest, ZM, what did you make of the game? Given that you’ve said before that you don’t really tend to follow the SPL, did you enjoy it?
I’m sure it was probably a good game from a neutral perspective. For me, it was incredibly frustrating to see the second half capitulation against a team which quite simply bullied us.
Yeah it was OK. I always watch the OF clashes, but in general the other games a combination of (a) not interesting enough and (b) clashing with other games to get my attention…
>> The dive for the penalty (which was blatant) and the referee not sending McCulloch off after repeated fouls didn’t help
I don’t want to get into too much of a slanging match here – this site is far too good for that – but I don’t agree with this comment.
The Rangers’ penalty was soft, but nowhere near the “dive” it’s being reported as, and McCulloch – while certainly lucky not to see a second yellow for his challenge on Samaras – should’ve not have been booked in the first place, IMO.
On the other hand, I feel that Stokes was lucky not to see red for his first minute challenge on Papac, and Samaras himself should’ve been booked (at least) for an ‘ankle-breaker’ on Bougherra.
All things considered, I think Collum did a fair job, given his obvious leanings to the green and white side of Glasgow, and the unnecessary pressure put on him by Neil Lennon in the days leading up to the game.
Come on Ronnie, “McCulloch – while certainly lucky not to see a second yellow for his challenge on Samaras – should’ve not have been booked in the first place”
That first challenge from McCulloch was a typical Elbows studs-up attempt at maiming an opposition player – in my opinion he was lucky to be on the pitch to be the recipient of Mr Collum’s generosity when subsequently he cynically pulled down Samaras – def. red card
And yes, none of that excuses Stokes 1st minute shocker
Disagree. It was a dive. I had a very good view of the incident and the replays seem to confirm that Broadfoot was looking for it: he jumped over Majstorovic’s leg and to the ground. More importantly, the referee had his back turned to the incident (and appeared to have been standing in the way of one of the defenders) and wasn’t in a good position to make such a decision – especially considering that it was potentially decisive.
However, that doesn’t excuse Stoke’s challenge and, as you said, this isn’t really the place for a debate about the referee’s performance.
Celtic were woeful – as they have been on several occasions under Lennon. Rangers deserved to win.
Not a fan of Scottish football, is a joke in my opinion, and wouldn’t approve of the Old Firm joining the English leagues, although if Swansea/Cardiff are allowed, surely it begs the question, why can’t Rangers and Celtic?
Big fan of Rangers though, in terms of tactics, organisation and discipline, they are superb, Walter Smith’s a very good manager in my opinion, who obviously plans in intense detail for matches, quite Mourinho esque.
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