Celtic beat Aberdeen 1-0 in another drab affair with xG at 1.34-0.63. Once again providing an xG differential under 1!
I thought we dominated without much impact early which is shown below to be true. What does the data say?
McGregor & Soro
Lopsided Celtic
Welsh Naivety
The Goal
At the start of the move, McRorie has identified the danger but doesn’t retreat due to Man v Man tactic (awful, undynamic, and causes all of Aberdeen’s problems). McGregor is the spare man now as the formation is 4-4-2 v 5-3-2. So he can progress the ball forward.
Ferguson decides he has to engage, but man v man so just ends up in no man’s land as McGregor passes by him to Turnbull.
Turnbull, having lost his man, turns freely and with no real forward options hits a fantastic strike to score the winning goal.
Turnbull’s strike of 0.04xG is a good one to let Celtic have from an Aberdeen perspective considering the position they were in. The poor chance is due to Edouard being static. Aberdeen CBs panic, step out of line and Eddy doesn’t exploit the space in behind.
Klimala Parallel
Klimala would have Celtic’s best chance (0.28xG) of the game by doing what Eddy doesn’t for the goal. Klimala takes advantage of CB panicked stepping out to get into gap in behind and get a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Man v Man weaknesses
Man V Man is a flawed tactic, again here McGregor skips by McCrorie into a huge gap. Ajeti gets across his defender dragging opposition with him. McGregor cuts back to Turnbull who is in lots of space now due to Ajeti but can’t finish the move.
Crosses
Celtic were error-ridden defending crosses. I won’t go into the Greg Taylor marking Hornby as that’s all the evidence I need to know we aren’t properly coached on defending crossed balls.
Ajer likes to take up a zonal position but isn’t aware of what is around him. This means he is incapable of reacting to changing circumstances. Below show 2 incidents where his man is able to get an easy run in front of him. In the third picture, I’ve also circled an unmarked player.
Once again in the final few minutes, it’s pandemonium in the Celtic box, which is becoming a running theme. The picture shows FIVE players unmarked, including a group of four which is just astonishing. Fortunately, the cross is dreadful.
The final attack of the game nearly results in a goal. Unmarked man gets to the ball, Christie panics and presses leaving a huge hole in the box. Fortunately, it doesn’t land for Aberdeen and the game ends. We are getting worse at defending crossed balls.
Final thoughts
A win and a clean sheet the main positives. However, the lack of creativity and chance creation has me leaning more to the side that the result was fortunate. At the very least the core of the midfield, Soro, Mcgregor and Turnbull will be here next.
Overall, another boring game where we relied on low probability chances and luck to win. So obviously poorly coached it’s astonishing to believe it’s nearly March and it’s still happening.
Oh God , here we go again! Stat man