Celtic had to come from 0-1 down to Rosenborg. It is to Rodger’s credit he changed the Celtic attacking shape. But this had contributed to the Hoops deficit.
Celtic set out with Forrest just behind Edouard to mimic the shape given by Edouard and Dembele against Alashkert. This meant Sinclair was high and wide on the left as normal, but Gamboa was expected to provide the high width on the right. McGregor was never going to play as an out and out right sided winger like Forrest. His strength is in seeking out the ball in the half spaces between defence and midfield and between full backs and centre backs. Tierney tucked back into a back three to balance Gamboas’ right sided excursions.
Celtic toiled as Forrest could not get on the ball whilst simultaneously restricting the space Edouard had. After 15 minutes Forrest had completed 4 passes all with his back to goal.
This shape and player positioning also contributed to the Rosenborg goal after 15 minutes.
We have all seen the impact of defensive mistakes at this level over the years. When a team does three things wrong in a row, you will probably concede. Celtic did at least three things wrong in a row.
Hendry lost possession with his right sided full back Gamboa high up the park, and neither Ntcham nor Brown in a position to cover. It was a poor decision to advance that far forward.
The third error is a gross one as Gamboa, having tracked Meling back to the edge of the box, leaves him to run onto Bendtner’s perfect square pass to score.
The Norwegians are set up to counter attack with pace in the wings and playing quick long balls up to the skilful target man Bendtner. In the 0-0 game last season Rosenborg had two fast breaks and nearly scored through De Lanlay. Here they had one and scored.
It was 25 minutes in before the change of shape was made.
Forrest was moved back to wide right and McGregor was then free to roam behind Edouard. McGregor is such an intelligent player he did not take Edouard’s space whilst continuing to find plenty of his own. He led the team in creating 4 chances in addition to an assist. He completed 74 passes including 2 into the Danger Zone.
As well as providing McGregor and Edouard the space to operate, Forrest was free then to drive the roving Meling back. Although only successful with 1 out of 5 dribbles, Forrest stopped the full back advancing and further opened the midfield space for others. Not only that, he could now support Gamboa (Forrest is the team’s most effective defensive attacking midfielder).
The other benefit of the change of shape was that Tierney, previously held back as Gamboa constantly advanced, was now able to get forward as per normal. He eventually had 6 possessions in the box, behind only Sinclair. The left side had been neutered in the previous shape with Sinclair getting minimal attacking support.
Celtic’s initial shape hampered the attacking fluency and inadvertently led to Rosenborg’s break away opener. Hopefully all will be well in the end and the away goal will be for naught.
Rosenborg will struggle to play their counter attacking game whilst chasing two goals. Celtic have speed to burn on the break and have already scored 2 goals from 4 fast breaks this season.
I have to laugh at the positive spin put on the decision to alter tactics after the away goal was scored across the Timternet.
The fact remains it was a tactical blunder to deploy Forrest through the middle and it’s not the first time Rodgers has tried this either?
By doing so he nullified the threat on the right and more or less cancelled Forrest out the game as he ran about like a headless chicken?
Their left back had the freedom to get up the park as a result.
No sooner had the change back to a more familiar setup and aforrest was bang at it accompanied now by a very different Gamboa?
As a result their left back never ventured beyond the half way line again al night too my recollection as he was more or less pinned by the tag team of the Celtic pairing.
Brown to me was the player most at fault as both CB’s have obviously been given License to counter from deep when an opening to do so appears?
Neil Lennon used to deploy a similar setup with both Van Dijk and Ambrose given license to attack.
This is less of a risk in a proper 3 man (That’s 3 CB’s) set up as Brown can simply step back in to cover any quick counter as the CB forages up the Park.
Brendan tried to be clever and it clearly backfired hence the quick change to the usual setup when we went behind.
You don’t really want your RB tracking LB into box. This is the job of defensive mid. Gamboa tried to return to his defensive position. Fault was not to pass him on to defensive mid. This was at least in part due to Brown trying to sitting on his rear.