Cheers turned to tears as The Rangers fears against Celtic were cruelly realised. Celtic remain on course for six trophies in a row under Rodgers thanks to a 4-0 hammering to reach the Scottish Cup Final.
The Glossary is ever ready to turn one over the bar after standing idle for 53 minutes.
Set Up To Fail
On Twitter, Dougie Wright has already provided excellent video analysis of the four Celtic goals, highlighting the various poor defending and tracking actions by The Rangers players. Look on his timeline look at April 16th. I am therefore not going to repeat what has already been expertly described.
A problem the Ibrox outfit have, as I have highlighted in various match summaries, is that they do not have a natural number 6. That is, a player screening the back four whose primary job is defensive, to put out fires and avoid danger. Good accurate passing is also a prerequisite for the role and all their candidates (Jack, Dorrans, Halliday, Docherty, Holt) are capable of that. But consider what makes Brown effective in that role in addition – positioning, strength, tackling technique, anticipation, communication. Not so much. Halliday is a left sided midfielder seemingly more at home at a lower level. Dorrans has played as a wide attacker most of his career and Docherty looks a box to box type. Rogic always plays dominantly against Jack.
Asking three players to screen the back four, which is not a system I’m aware The Rangers had played this season, had two major impacts.
- The players asked to screen the defence didn’t seem to be equipped to excel in that role and chances flowed.
- The Rangers preferred attacking outlets were neutered.
Taking these points in turn. Rodgers sprung one tactical surprise. He selected McGregor over Sinclair. As I showed in The Rangers Dangers, Celtic have been successfully exploited down both flanks in previous encounters. The Light Blues are especially strong on their right side with the Tavernier and Candeias axis. I thought Forrest may be moved over, but Rodger’s went for McGregor instead. Whereas Sinclair ALWAYS plays in what will become known as “The Sinclair Position” (just narrower than an outside left winger and just wider than an inside left forward), McGregor is a chameleon of a player. His manager has compared him to Philipp Lahm and I have made the comparison to Steve McManaman, once of Liverpool and Real Madrid. Another article beckons on that (and I have another bonkers comparison to make). But what McGregor gives is movement as well as more defensive solidity than Sinclair.
With McGregor selected, this gave Celtic greater movement across the front line. Rogic was quick to spot the spaces wide in this formation, and McGregor wandered to find space when Celtic had the ball.
The game was virtually over by half time, and in that half, the four Celtic attackers were found repeatedly by colleagues despite the apparent seven-man screen.
What this shows is the number of successful forward passes each Celtic attacker received in the first half that took out at least one opponent and the Total Impect score associated (see The Glossary for full explanation).
Had Bhoy of the Match been awarded at half time Rogic would have strolled off with it. He received more successful forward passes than the whole of the opposition. Additionally, he managed six shots in the half. Stringing three midfielders across to block the “10” space failed miserably.
Secondly, the revised system stymied The Rangers attacking patterns as seen above. They have had joy against Celtic either launching long balls into the full back positions, or interplay on the wings leading to crosses. With such a narrow formation, and with Candeias and Murphy failing to transition wide in possession, there was no outlet.
Tavernier and Candeias combined twice in the first half to take The Rangers forward, John and Murphy not at all. Morelos was found three times in the half with penetrative forward passes, twice in the 45th minute. The Ibrox club did not manage a shot at goal until the 45th minute. By the 31st minute Gordon had touched the ball once. They average 16 attempted crosses per match against Celtic, more than any other Scottish team. By half time they had attempted 3, none were successful. It took until the 25th minutes for their first possession in Celtic’s box.
In the second half, Celtic went to sleep at 3-0 and The Rangers had a flurry of chances around the 55-minute mark. They finally played the way that had brought qualified success in earlier games. The first of those came from a Martin diagonal to Tavernier in Tierney’s space, and his cross was met by Morelos and saved acrobatically by Gordon. Another chance came from the corner and then one from Lustig’s defensive “clearance” forced by rare pressing and pressure on Ajer initially. After that it all petered out again.
The Rangers system took away their main attacking options based on what had worked in the past. Defensively the players were not up to the jobs assigned leaving the defence horribly exposed. Celtic’s forward movement was too good.
What Domination Looks Like
Celtic were super-efficient scoring 4 goals from only 5 shots on target. But tracking the Expected Goals through the 90 minutes shows the extent Celtic pushed their opponent back in the opening period and established a clear lead.
There was nothing from the Blue side up to half time and then that flurry of activity around 55-60 minutes. Between penalties, Celtic reverted to the 2017/18 stylee of “resting with the ball”. 65% possession allowed the Celtic players to stroll the second half. This was Celtic’s 3rd highest xG of the season in Scotland but this is distorted by 2 penalties.
The Impect By Minute plot shows a similar story. Simply this shows the extent to which forward passes are penetrating the opposition defences.
Celtic’s Total Impect of 362 is their highest since winning away at Partick Thistle in January. Again, there was as slight narrowing of the gap in the middle of the second half, but Celtic eased away again. The substitution of Rogic for Sinclair on 60 minutes reminded the starters that the game had to be seen out.
What Now?
With ten games under Rodgers unbeaten against The Rangers, eight wins and twenty-five goals scored, there is a danger the Ibrox club will start to emulate Aberdeen. I wrote last year in Between Rock, Paper, Scissors and a Hard Place before the Scottish Cup Final that McInnes had tried all different methods of combating the Hoops. None had worked. Following the heartbreak of that Final, Celtic have won every game against the Dons this season with ease. It is as if the players know that no matter how they are set up, they will lose. McInnes has tried man-to-man, full court press, sitting deep, playing long. The only approach he has not tried is going toe-to-toe.
On the face of it The Rangers may not have the same issues since the constant merry-go-round of managers means a fresh perspective is only a few months away. However, many of the players persist. They tried going toe-to-toe under Warburton and Caixinha. That ended badly. Under Murty, we have seen pressing defence, and long ball and quick transitions in attack having some reward. Faith was lost in that approach and the passive and defensive formation adopted here was easily dismantled by the default Celtic 4-2-3-1 system.
With indiscipline within the squad laid bare at Hampden, it will take a motivator of Alex Ferguson’s status to convince that group this Celtic team are beatable.
Bhoy of the Match
There were several excellent performances and only Ajer, Tierney of the starters had below average performances. Please follow me on Twitter (see the “Follow on Twitter” at the top right of the page) where I will provide some data on each player to illustrate.
It was not an easy decision, but I have gone for Ntcham.
And Finally…..
…….despite what you may read in the press, the day ended well for Murty. Him and Rodgers are besties and here’s the Celtic Gaffer applauding his opposite number down the bookies for correctly predicting the score. Morelos was also going for 4 but he missed the betting slip with his pencil.
Peter says
Everybody knows in football,your only as good as last result,you never know how the next game is going to pan out,we’ve got an idea that we can win anyone,but we can’t take our eye off the ball,we’ve still to beat the steel men,and win league yet,in the kingdom of Scotland after Celtic! The rest,the rest,,are just football teams.let’s enjoy this wonderful football club,May they continue playing together for years and Brendan doing his William Wallace,Scot wa hay,