Finding Light in Dark Places

As sobering an experience as a 0-5 home defeat is, in the modern vernacular we must “take the positives”. Having captured all the data, believe me, I’ve looked damned hard!

There are three performances to draw attention to.

Tierney

On the defensive side, Tierney was very much stationed at left back, wary of the fast and tricky Mbappe. He rarely ventured forward overlapping Sinclair as per his signature position in domestic football.

“Packing” and “Impect” are explained here: https://celticbynumberscom.ipage.com/concerning-packing/

Not suffering calamity was a good result in this game. All the defenders had nightmare moments: Lustig’s own goal; Simunovic conceding a penalty; Ralston being dragged all over by Neymar and not being able to follow his runs. Tierney, despite being out of position on a few occasions, managed to defend competently.

He then led the team in offensive endeavour in that he had the highest overall Impect score. What this means is that through a combination of his passes, receiving the ball and dribbling, he took out more opponents than any other Celt. 12 actions took out the opposition for an Impect score of 79. Next best was Griffiths on 57. His accurate long passing gave Celtic an outlet. He provided the pass for Sinclair to run into the box on half time and force a save from Areola.

It was not the swashbuckling Tierney we are used to, but by being merely competent in this company, he was the Bhoy of the Match.

Sinclair

I’ve pointed out in the past that Sinclair has struggled to show his imperious domestic form at the higher level. Against Paris, he was often isolated and starved of support both from his overlapping buddy Tierney, and from midfielders, as I showed in Gone In 45.

Yet he offered the greatest threat of any of the home contingent.

It was slim pickings for all the Celtic attackers and Sinclair was the only one to get shots away in the box. Twice he forced saves from Areola. He managed to get possession in the box 5 times, easily the highest.

Often isolated, he lost possession 5 times. With 13 passes completed and a Usage Rate of 5%, he was hardly in the game, but relative to other team mates, carried the attacking fight.

Ralston

There were few shining lights for Celtic, and pitting Ralston against the $222 million man, Neymar, was a typically brave decision from Rodgers. Whilst this can be seen as no lose, there was the potential to wreck a young career. And indeed, Neymar dropping into the “10” position and spinning back proved difficult for Ralston to deal with and lead to Cavani’s first goal. A classic case of ball watching.

I did not award a Defensive Error against him for the first goal as he was undone by world class movement and pace by Neymar and world class pass from Rabiot.

I wrote on Twitter pre-game that Ralston should start with the direction of “just defend” and treat anything else as a bonus. He did just that, offering virtually nothing as an attacking force.

It was not a fairy tale performance, and the bejewelled Parisian front line got at Celtic all too easily. And yet. The young Ralston, who I christen Sparky with his physical resemblance to the ex-Wales and Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich thunder-thighed forward Mark Hughes, showed remarkable character for an 18-year-old.

Although at fault for a first half goal, and clearly struggling to match Neymar’s mercurial movement, Ralston stuck to task and ordained himself crowd rouser du jour in a combative and aggressive second half. Even going tête-à-tête to échange civilités with Neymar.

“Ma’ heid is considerably bigger than yowers”

At the fin de la journée, three points were lost. Celtic’s long-term gain may have been to have uncovered a new Lion.