Celtic 3-0 Rangers: Celtic better all over the pitch
The starting line-ups
Celtic extended their advantage at the top of the SPL with a dominant performance.
Neil Lennon left out Anthony Stokes, and brought in Georgios Samaras to play upfront.
Walter Smith again used Kyle Bartley ahead of the back four, and played El-Hadji Diouf and Steven Naismith either side of the midfield (whereas in last weekend’s 6-0 over Motherwell, Diouf played just off the striker in a 4-2-3-1).
The first significant action of the game happened within two minutes. Bartley dived into an unnecessary challenge and picked up a booking. From there, he was frightened of making any more tackles, and therefore Rangers were significantly weakened in the centre of the pitch.
Central midfield
This helped Celtic dominate the midfield battle, though overall their midfielders were more reliable in possession than Rangers’ anyway. Maurice Edu frequently gave the ball away, as did Bartley. Biram Kayal played deep in midfield foer Celtic and got time on the ball – he didn’t do anything spectacular, but moved the ball nicely from side to side, and was the main reason Celtic dominated possession – they had 60% of the ball throughout the match.
Despite holding onto the ball for decent periods, Celtic looked at their most threatening when they played on the break, as in the previous league meeting between these sides, where Samaras scored two goals on the counter. Celtic were especially dangerous down their left – Kris Commons played as an advanced, natural winger on that side, whereas Scott Brown was tucked in on the right, almost as a third central midfielder.
Two goals from the left
That meant the left was more of an outlet for the home side, and Commons supplied Hooper for the first goal with a low ball into feet. Hooper sped past Weir in an amazingly mismatched contest, and fired home.
Celtic also prospered down their left because of the attacking drive from Emilio Izaguirre from full-back. Smith switched Diouf and Naismith midway through the half, possibly because Naismith is better defensively and was more likely to do a better job of tracking Izaguirre. However, the Honduran sped forward to create Celtic’s second with a very direct attack down the left – he squared for Hooper to tap into an empty net.
Celtic dominance
Celtic were simply better in every department. They exposed Weir’s weakness at the back, and held onto the ball better in the centre of the pitch, whilst Rangers struggled to give Nikica Jelavic any support from midfield – he frequently battled for long balls but had no-one to knock the ball down to.
Diouf and Naismith stayed in wide positions, whilst neither Edu nor Davis got forward from the centre particularly well – in fact, Davis seemed to move deeper as the first half went on, trying to get more time on the ball, as Kayal was enjoying in his deep role. Rangers missed Jamie Ness, who had impressed in the first Old Firm derby of the year with his calm passing from midfield.
Second half
Smith tried to change things at half time. He brought on Kyle Lafferty for the injured Naismith in a straight swap, but moved to more of a 4-4-2 with Diouf joining Jelavic upfront. The full-backs also pushed higher up the pitch, and tried to overlap Rangers’ wide players more. Immediately Rangers were more of a threat to the Celtic defence, as Diouf pulled down a long ball for a decent chance, but they were still second best. With a lack of central midfield options on the bench, they never gained the advantage in that zone and the switch in formation didn’t help.
Celtic were mature and disciplined in the second half. The full-backs generally stayed in position and their central midfielders remained behind the ball. As a result, their attacking potential was reduced – but they weren’t vulnerable to quick Rangers breaks. Ki Sung-Yeung replaced Kayal (who was on a booking, and tends not to last 90 minutes anyway) in the centre of the pitch and played that quiet passing role similarly well, and Commons grabbed a third with a long-range shot that deceived McGregor.
David Healy replaced Diouf as Smith tried to introduce a new attacking threat, but Celtic were comfortable and deserved the victory.
Conclusion
Celtic were stronger than Rangers in every department, meaning it’s impossible to identify one area of the pitch or a particular battle that was the major factor in winning the game.
It does indicate that Lennon got his tactics correct, however. Celtic were intelligent with the ball – they broke quickly when the opportunity arose, but otherwise played short, calm passing that frustrated Rangers.
Rangers looked disjointed in the first half. There was no support to Jelavic, the midfield couldn’t retain the ball, and Weir’s pace was exposed at the back. None of the starting XI had good games, and Smith was unable to change things from the bench.
Celtic 3-0 Rangers: Celtic better all over the pitch
Interesting read, thought Celtic were fantastic today.
props to ZM marking for covering the Old Firm game.
Good article. Brown tucking in on the right (he’s played most of his career as a centre-mid and most of this season there) was part of the reason we retained possession so well – and the superior technical quality of our midfielders (Davis is quite good in this respect, but has been off-form all season.)
Other than that, Celtic were just generally – as you point out – the better side. We have a young, technically-gifted group of players making up what’s becoming a very good squad. Our pressing is excellent and the understanding between the players and football we play is good as well. Celtic were all over the place in the 3-1 game – technically superior but organisationally poor. Now that we’ve found a system that works well, with bite and quality, we’ve started to play very well offensively and defensively.
ZM, how do you rate Lennon so far? IMO, he’s done a brilliant job – completely turned around a failing team (one of our worst ever) into a very good squad and has gained some tactical nous along the way.
As tweeted earlier, thought Samaras dropping deep was key. None of the Rangers midfielders seemed to be picking him up, meaning a centre-back came out and allowed more space for Hooper to make clever runs further up the pitch.
That said, I only saw the first half. Very impressed with Celtic.
I’d also like to say that the second goal was incredible. Izaguirre’s contribution, in winning the ball and bombing down the flank, was outstanding. Brilliant counter-attacking goal.
That disaster away at Utrecht earlier this year is a real shame. With as good as Celtic has been in 2011 it would be interesting to see what they could have done in Europa.
I don’t think we’d be as good if we hadn’t been humiliated like that in Europe. I think that was the point that Lennon knew there were a lot of players he couldn’t trust – Fortune, Hooiveld, Zaluska being the main casualties – and the job facing him in sorting out the problems from the Mowbray regime were huge: a lack of organisation, mental toughness and overall quality.
He’s brought in some brilliant players, has them playing good football to a system – well-organised and hard-working – and has improved a lot of struggling players (Brown and Samaras in particular.) He’s also managed to forge a really good mentality.
I think as a result of the Utrecht disaster we’ve now learned a lot of lessons and are better placed for Europe next season.
Hey ZM, can you do a review of the Barca-Athletic match? I noticed you haven’t done a La Liga review in a while.
Daniel Alves as always makes the difference with 2 assist. What a player.
Hooper got an assist too – and two goals
A player and a bargain!
Sorry, lack of time. Will try to do one soon.
As for my brothers, of whom I had three, I know not how they were bred.
Thanks for continuing to cover the Old Firm derby ZM, they may not be the most tactically sophisticated, but they’re an often engrossing spectacle. i would say that as a Celtic fan though!
Celtic have really turned a corner under rookie gaffer Neil lennon, and unbeaten and flying in 2011, and it’s down to a tacticl shift.
Under Celtic’s last two managers – the very successful Gordon Strachan and the sadly put-of-his-depth Tony Mowbray tended to default to a 4-4-2 variant in the league wich saw all of Celtic’s creativity out wide, in effect a 4-2-2-2 or, in Mowbray’s wildest moments a 4-2-4
The problem witht his was a very disjointed team, soft in the spine, as central midifield invairably got over-run,the defence was offered little protection and there was little attacking threath from deep.
Strachan’s sides often countered the lack of creativity through the middle by playing inverted wingers – the clever shaunsuke Nakamura on the right, with the more old fashione winger McGeady on the left. However, teams grew wise to this, doubled up on celtics wide players safe in the knowledge taht thier be little creative spark coming from the middle of the pitch.
Lennon, for a spell, breifly fell into this 4-2-2-2 trap, which coincided with some of his least convincing perfomances domestically. He also generated some confusion by identifying and signing multiple midfield players in his two trajsfer windows – Joe Ledley, Biram Kayal, Kris Commons and Frederik Ljungberg were added to a squad already boasting scott brwn, Ki Sueng Yueng, Paddy McCourt and nippy wingers Nial McGinn and James Forrest. Celtic;s start player, and often creator-in-chief, Aiden McGeady was sold for £10 million pound.
lennon realised that midfield was the key area that needed fixing after the Mowbray disaster, he beefed it up with players who could destroy and create, reduced the relaince on a single player that was evident with McGeady and crucially, dropped the two winger system that had seemed link with a flimsy Celtic team for the past 2 or so years.
The ZM team diagram above explains it perfectly, Scott Brown is playing right midfield, but not as a winger, and a ssuch Celtic have three central midfielders to protect their defence, keep possesion and launch atatcks. Commons, a clever and direct players, often plays as a left forward whilst Samaras, despite being 6ft plus, often dropped deep into the hole between the lines to pick up the ball. As such the midfield attack often takes a 3-2-1/3-3/3-1-2/4-1-1 shape.
In short, like all good formations, there’s a fluidity to the shape, and an intelligence of the players to fill gaps and move in spaces taht need to be occupied.The irony is, by beefing up the spine of the Celtic side and making them more solid in the middle, Lennon has arguably created a more exciting, effective and enetertaining Celtic team than the “cavalier” Tony Mowbray.
Europe next season should be interesting from a Celtic point of view, as a standard midfield four of Brown-Ki-Kayal_Ledley has proven to be very adept at retaining posession, having close to 70% despite being a man down away to Rangers in the Scottish Cup, providing they don;t freeze being outisde of Scotland, we may see one of the tradtional Scottish eakeness in European club football – ball retention – being a non-issue. Celtic’s defence is still to be properly tested of course, and may [rove to be their undoing on the continet.
I’m getting ahead of myelf of course, Lennon is still to win anything as Celtic boss, he;s in a good postion to pick up a domestic treble in his first eason – the Ginger Guardiola indeed- however, if he fails to do so, tehre has still been enough progression, and a change in club culture, to siggest his first season has been very successful indeed.
Apologies for the long rambling post.
No problem, it’s a pleasure, as it is to read such informed and interesting comments like yours.
I must admi that Lennon has surprised me a lot as Celtic manager. I thought he’d just be a bit of a cheerleader with little tactical acumen, but compared to Mowbray he’s brought in a much more disciplined, structured side. Ki and Kayal are good players, would like to see them together more.
Very much, so, Lennon’s appointement saw one Celtic blogger note that his postion as a holding midfielder often saw him as the cleverest man on the pitch, so perhaps his tactical ideas aren;t that suprising.
Further, despiute being a very good player, he was not what you would describe as naturally gifted, which counters the problem great players often have when they go into management – their lack of understanding as to why some players can;t do what the are asking for them.
As I said, I expect Ki-Kayal to be the central midfield for european games next year, with Brown and Ledley either side to create a failry narrow midfield four, assuming Celtic hold on to these players of course. i suspect they will though, they are unproven at the level which would allow Celtic to demand what would be a worthwhile transfer fee.
Yeah, Lennon has done a very good job. He clearly knows how to win in this league and has a very good mentality which is getting through to the players.
At the same time, though, I always feared that he’d be found out tactically. He’s improved a lot in this area though – the victory at Ibrox on Jan 2nd and the 2-2 game a few weeks later were two of the most patient and disciplined Celtic performances I’ve ever seen. The latter in particular showed a real coming of age – the way in which Celtic bossed that game despite down to 10 men and a goal down away from home was very impressive.
His ability to get the best out of struggling players is remarkable as well. Scott Brown has gone from being seen as a big-money (by SPL standards) flop to an ever-present and first name on the teamsheet. Charlie Mulgrew was second-choice left-back and looked like a poor purchase. Since the beginning of the season, he’s turned into a good utility player and now a very decent ball-playing centre-back who’s keeping Rogne out of the team. Georgios Samaras also seems to be coming onto a game as well.
We should get together and combine our ideas. Email me sometime johannachu16hotmail.com