Against St Johnstone Rodger’s made a subtle change to the midfield shape at half time counter intuitively withdrawing McGregor deeper. And it won the game, moving Celtic 6 points clear.
At the half Celtic were utterly dominant in terms of possession. With 83% possession, seven Celtic players had completed 50 or more passes but only 7 shots with one on target had been generated. Only 5 chances were created and 4 shots taken inside the opposition box.
Celtic set up in a 4-3-3 with Brown anchoring and McGregor and Christie acting as Number 8’s shuttling down the inside left and right channels. Celtic’s play became bogged down across the back and middle however.
The passing density map shows the volume of passes by position. The larger the circle the more passes completed.
Despite territorial domination, a competent and experienced Saints side were happy at 0-0.
The half time switch was slight with McGregor dropping in beside Brown and Christie pushing forward as more of a number 10 changing the shape to 4-2-3-1.
After 60 minutes the passing density map now looked like this:
Play was flowing through Brown and McGregor and not the defence. Now, in the past, this has often led to stagnation when there are two 6’s (think Bitton and Brown under Deila). But in this match the impacts were various and all positive for Celtic:
- Brown was no longer first receiver, McGregor was
- McGregor was receiving the ball with more time and space
- Christie was free to roam and find space between the lines and support Burke whenever he liked
- Lustig suddenly had acres of space as Brown covered his wing
In the second half McGregor completed 78 passes, Brown 58 and no other player passed 50. Brown completed 13 Pack Passes (forward passes taking out at least one opponent) and McGregor 16. Their respective season averages are 5.95 and 6.66.
53 minutes – Coming from deeper, with Brown distracting Davidson on a now overloaded right flank, Lustig, able to advance, found McGregor with a clear run at goal. He advanced and finished superbly from distance. His technique is too good to be given that much time to take aim.
55 minutes – Two minutes later the trick was repeated as Brown and Lustig combined to find Christie floating. He completed 1-2-3 touches to die for in scoring a wonderful goal.
In the second half Christie had 4 shots and created 3 chances in his 36 minutes after 1 shot and 0 chances created in the first. With Rogic out for 6 weeks and Ntcham recovering from a hamstring injury, Christie’s flexibility will be key.
The change Rodger’s made was small but indicative of a manager and squad who know each other well.
Having players of the adaptability of McGregor and Christie obviously helps.
I was at the game and intuitively felt what you have just written. Again fantastic bit of analysis from you and spot on.
Well done. As we all know there is a difference between aimless possession and positive possession. Aimless is slow and predictable. Positive is having the ball and being creative. A game of 2 halves.
I spoke about this a few weeks ago about the difference in roles when Brown and McGregor play in this area of the Park.
Brown adopts an almost half back approach to playing deep whereas McGregor is deployed as the Regista or deep lying play maker ala Pirlo,Xavi and Verratti.
McGregors movement and awareness is the difference as he already has a clear picture in his mind of what he intends to do when receiving the ball and it is generally a forward thinking pass or run i to space.
He moves the ball so much quicker than Brown who’s natural instinct is to retain possession and not lose the ball.
Hence why his passion g tends to be a sideways or back pass.
Every Regista needs a Brown type or Christie type around them though for protection and I think both Brown and Christie offer Calmac this insurance.
His (Calmac) range of passing today was superb at St Johnstone and in my opinion the standout performer though Brown and Weah got the plaudits.
In my opinion McGregor is THE standout player in Scotland at present and not far off peak McStay levels at Celtic.
He’s that good.
The Club needs to get a clause in his Contract rapid in my opinion because Clubs in Europe will be monitoring him now.
There aren’t that many top quality Registas in the game at present.
I’ve linked your comments on Twitter because they deserve sharing.
Do we appreciate great play when we see it? Did we think Van Dijk was world class when viewing him at St Johnstone away?
I will suggest that you put McGregor with great players he’d be superb.
In my view, where McGregor was moved to in 2nd half against St Johnstone is the position he needs to play. He needs that little bit of extra time and space to maximise his strengths. I don’t think he isn’t good enough to play the No. 10 role, where I believe it emphasises his limitations.
The thing that struck me most about his performance on Wednesday night (both halves) was that I sensed increased leadership from him. It was as if he now believes he is one of the main players in the team. Perversely, I wonder if events at Ibrox have flicked another switch on for him in that regard.
It will be interesting to see if he carries that into games at venues I think he has previously struggled to stamp any authority on (Tynecastle, Easter Road and Pittodrie).
I do have concerns about his concentration and decision making at times when we are not in possession of the ball, but that’s less of an issue domestically. To your point, it would be even less of an issue if he had better players round him.
I agree McGregor has become a very important part of our team, along with Christie they are the heartbeat of the team. My only concern with McGregor is his habit of taking possession with his back to opponents goal, then finding himself under pressure – he generally gets caught on the ball and we are under immediate counter attack. He SHOULD have the awareness to move the ball on immediately until he can safely take an extra touch. Top quality play makers rarely get got in possession or take a ball blind like this.
We need to up our overall game, set plays are basically hit & hope, reliance on full backs who currently both lack pace to recover (As does Brown which was similar to Lennon / Lambert some years ago). Opponents will soon start man marking both McGregor & Christie (already being done to an extent) so we need movement and plan ‘B’ or plan ‘C’ we can switch to, rather than wait for 45 mins or an hour of inaction.
Regards passing, I only tend to look at passing / possession in the opponents half as really being important. Most of our attacks SHOULD end with a possible chance being created / shot at goal / corner / free kick rather than working it back to our keeper to retain the ball. Either our crossing is very poor or the timing / positioning and movement of the players is crap, at worst we should be contesting majority of crosses instead of watching unchallenged clearances. Appreciate with several new players it takes time to adjust if they want the ball played to feet or into area’s for them to run onto but we are not making the most of our huge advantages in possession.
The 2 current centre backs Ajer & Jozo attack high balls but simply put them back where they came from, quality like Boyata / Benkovic tend to find OUR players so we can build another attack.
Brown does a job domestically, but most opponents know he will pass sideways or backwards and now lacks the legs to get up & down the park. We need someone dynamic in there quickly and we could move out of sight of everyone in Scotland at least.
You must be watching a different McGregor to me bud it his ability to drop deep,collect it and move it accurately at pace is ultimately what is creating the increase in attacks at Celtic.
He is the answer/antidote to the sideways/backward recycling of the ball as seen with Brown and Ntcham in there.
When McGregor ,Rogic – Christie are deployed together it’s like an entirely different Celtic.
If you want confirmation of this go watch both the Rosenborg away game and the humping of Killie again.
Then it to the games previous and after the Midfield reverted back to Brown /Ntcham again.
McGregor is seldom caught in possession because his movement and awareness is such he makes the space and time for himself to create attacks from deep.
This is the role of the Regista and it is a role he is excelling in at Celtic.
No longer the utility man at Celtic he’s found his true calling in Midfield a long may it continue.
I agree totally on the set piece aspect but hopefully the return of Griffiths will put that straight as he is comfortably the best taker of a set piece/dead ball at the Club.
I think we also need to mix it up a bit on corners going long,short and cutting it back to the edge of the box for a strike from range.
Couldn’t agree more Duncan. Watching Calmac’s movement with and without the ball is an education. He appears to be a move ahead of the game with his control (both feet) and vision. He is also helping Brown with his assurance on the ball and positioning. Ryan also making a huge difference.
I really enjoy this site and thanks for all the hard work done