Sunday, what was that…..

Ross Hall reviews the derby defeat

Warning: If you don’t want to read about data or discuss the game on Sunday, I don’t blame you and I’d advise you shut this page down now. It’s not going to be enjoyable we already know the score and I know I’m at pains to write it. If you want my advice…. Stand up, stretch out, arms high, legs apart and breathe in and the out and remember life is still better being one of us than it is being one of them. Then stroll into the kitchen or a café and get a nice drink and maybe a cheeky biscuit or snack. Enjoy the treats and enjoy the rest of your day. I’ve got to suffer for my supper by watching this game again and the various moments over and over again. If you want to suffer with me…. Then come join me in misery town down below and bring something comforting

because I have a feeling we’ll need it….

*Please note much of the data used is from the OPTA data Ben Griffis produces and whose full presentation I will pop at the bottom of the page. He’s a wonderfully talented analyst whose work you can find on Bluesky and other social media platforms. Well worth a follow.

The plan as I begin is to breakdown the goals and to offer some insights into the data and other things of note like game management and players knowing how to “play the game” especially with the ref.

Goal Breakdown:

3 minutes: 0-1 (Raskin): All starts with us being turned and a series of set plays. Now any player can make a mistake, but my absolute golden rule even as a kid when defending was, know what’s around you and communication is key. We deal with the first free kick and first corner, not well but we deal with them and if you listened to the podcast, you would have heard me be scathing about Jeffrey Schlupp because for me, he makes 2 fatal errors in less than 90 seconds, but he’s not alone.

Error 1: Never assume the ball is going out until you have a full body block on it and know who is where. Schlupp has the hand up to tell Reo Hatate he’s in control. He’s NOT in control because he has no idea what’s coming.

Second part is 4 team mates have to be giving their voice boxes a right good test to let him know he has a blindside problem. Now from a video it’s impossible to say if they did but any good coach and player knows comms are key, even when it’s loud and chaotic and if you are unsure then play safety first. Luke McCowan, Reo, Arne Engels and Nicolas Kuhn should all be able to see Raskin. HELP your mate, every moment of every game help your mate, especially in a derby game where for the first 2 minutes we’ve been camped in our defensive area.

Error 2: We don’t clear our lines from the corner, it leads to a throw in and eventually Raskin getting yet another freebie to strike a shot from 20 yards that Kasper Schmeichel parries wide.

Error 3: The Sky camera zooms in on Raskin and Schlupp. Schlupp appears to be indicating that he’s got Raskin. 3 seconds later he’s not, Raskin gets the run on him, goes beyond the front post marker Daizen Maeda and it’s a good ball at a good height for him to guide towards the back post under minimal pressure. Could we have someone on the far post, for me that’s Kaspers choice and both options have pros and cons but if you know that is a corner they like to use then someone on the back post would make sense.

I said this on Fridays podcast. They will come out hard and we need to show a calm and controlled level of aggression and also show some street smarts. Nothing for free was something I repeated more than I should have…. In 3 minutes, I was bouncing about like a loony saying those same words. We were giving up freebies for fun. Not helping each other, poor communication, players slashing at the ball and players not playing by the golden rules of defensive play. Don’t compound mistakes with more mistakes. If you feel pressure then clear the lines, have a few hard words with each other and reset the structure. Don’t allow a team to spend over 3 minutes in and around your own box.

The first 5 minutes or so, the data on game control form OPTA showed they had us pinned. It was the largest volume of control had throughout the entire game. That measurement isn’t just based on possession or having the ball high up the pitch, it’s about pressure on and off the ball so it takes into account that teams can have the ball and high but be doing nothing with it. Below is the image of the full game and as you can see Celtic (Green) & Rangers (Blue). So even in periods where we look and think we have control this index is telling us that Rangers defensive structure was good enough to ensure we weren’t really doing enough for large parts of the game including the second half where it felt like we were in better shape. The red and blue lines indicate when the goals were scored.

37 minutes: 0-2 (Diomande): John Souttar has the ball on the halfway line under no real pressure having received it from Raskin who is actually on our left side when a Rangers throw in is taken, he plays the ball to Souttar from near the left touchline and as Hatate goes to press with Maeda and Jota, Raskin runs 25 yards inside and behind Hatate while the ball goes from Souttar to Tavernier on the wide right. At this point Engels sees Raskin and that should become his man. Raskin yet again runs off his man, and into the box, Tavernier has no pressure on him and the one thing he is good at is picking out crosses. Schlupp and Jota have given him free space, Schlupp stepping out off of Dessers who was on the left means the defence should all be stepping over one, but the shape is wild with huge gaps. Nawrocki goes to cover Dessers, Carter-Vickers has to then try get to Raskin who has left Engels behind, Alastair Johnstone is still wide at the point of the cross and has a potential overload behind him and with Cerny and Razvan and doesn’t get close to covering in enough to have an impact on Diomande who to be fair finishes well. The wingbacks and midfield movement were killing us because the understanding, communication and desire just wasn’t on show.

Now up until this point any attacking intent we did have was down the right side and to be honest Nicolas Kuhn and AJ needed a good shake. They found a route that worked with Kuhn coming deeper and AJ making the underlap to good effect, and not once did they look for it again. Everything was safe, backwards, sideways and I hate to say but for me they played like they were afraid of losing the ball in a time where the team needed bravery on the ball. They weren’t alone but when the majority of our controlled possession is down that side the focus is on them and McCowan who for needed to be doing more to give them options to play off of. The team as whole were slow on the ball, predictable and timid.

To end my 1^st half of absolute infuriation, my feelings of anger at the gameplan, the tactical awareness, or lack of from our players and our lack of variation was ironically compounded by 3 positive moments from 1 player…

Jota who had seen so little of the ball in the 1^st half that he probably felt like he was back in France or Saudi Arabia had 3 moments of real quality in the 1^st half. He roasts a quick and powerful Dujon Sterling down the line, gets inside and gets a shot off that wins us a corner. He also in the 42^nd minute gets the ball and puts it right on Maeda, who has as good as scored with his glanced header… it’s in, until Sterling gets his toe to it on the stretch and diverts it wide for a corner…. Agony…. more agony when the resulting corner is put onto Nawrocki’s napper 6 yards out and all he can do is put it straight at Butland. Then Jota again gets the ball, megs TavPen on the sideline, beats the press from Sterling and hits a shot from 25 yards that has Butland beat but sadly goes a foot wide. What we had though was three clear signs that of the 2 wingers we had on the pitch, Jota was the one wanting to grab the game and likely to find a route to something positive….

Now before we get to the second half it was to be said that we had chances that could have seen us go in at 2-2, but just as easily could have gone in 4-0 down. I don’t have the time to cover the freebie for Cerny and the various other near misses but that was the reality, we were piss poor defensively as a back 5 and as a team unit from strikers to Kasper. As a supporter watching that, through the analytics and measured views out the window. I’d have wanted some serious foot to arse in that dressing room and players told in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t good enough in the most basic of ways. Not enough bravery or ability on show and certainly not enough fight or street smarts.

We allowed them to make us play their game, and the officials game without contest or challenging the continual nonsense from blocking free kicks, slowing the pace down at throw ins or another linesman forgetting the rules and flagging for offside when the attack was in flow. They block our free kick, blast the ball off them. They slow down the game, get in the ref’s ear and tell him get a grip and hold him accountable on the pitch during the game. They scythe down Yang, Maeda and anyone else… fight for your team mate get in faces, show passion, show a level of aggression that tells them and tells the crowd and everyone watching you are not going to be pushed around by that team on your own patch. I’m not saying scythe them down, but you can assert dominance in ways that don’t get you sent off. Daizen is the only one in our team that at any point left a wee bit on a tackle and that could be said in a lot of our games this season. Sometimes you need a bit of bite or a few loud voices making it known they are in the game. In my opinion we lack that. Eddie P brought this up on Sunday’s pod. We have leaders who lead by performance, but what if they aren’t performing, or worse still are having a mare???

48 minutes: 1-2 (Maeda): Starts from next to nothing. We struggle to get out but force a long back pass. Idah presses Butland, who fluffs his kick and we regain control in the middle of the pitch. Maeda ends up on the ball out left with 3 blue shirts closer to him that a team mate, he moves it to Schlupp, then to Engels who shows a moment of quality as he beats a 2 man press to slip a ball bang into the best area in a build-up, bang center of the final third with space (see image) to Luke McCowan and this is the spot where I like seeing him in and defenders hate having to deal with because he has 4 options.

What happens next is a goal with a lovely musical theme from George Michael to whoever composed the Jaws scary song bit and Simon and Garfunkel….

The Rangers back 5 get narrow and the man who scores isn’t in this picture. He’s left side with his favourite opponent… Dun, dun, dun, dun…… TavPen can hear the tune and feel it. He’s 1vs1 with Daizen Maeda and he fears him getting inside. The ball goes to Jota who looks like he’s put himself into an awkward stance for the cross, but it’s Jota… ye of little FAITH (I loved George Michael, what a guy…. cause you gotta have faith, faith, faith… ahhhhhh, and in Jota I have it in him to produce something good). He picks out Maeda with a looped ball to the back post. TavPen has feared the run inside but Daizen hasn’t gone inside. On the count of 3…. 1, 2, 3 “HE’S BEHIND YOU” and he’s scored. I can hear it already, TavPen has hello darkness my old friend playing in his head.

But the pattern of play continues and as above in the game control chart we still never looked comfortable and would continue to have slack moments, lazy moments and we weren’t giving committing to the moments. Loads of passes inside or backwards, when we had clear lanes forward waiting to be used. As Harry said on the Sunday podcast, AJ was really guilty of this and it’s annoying because he is a guy who has the ability to drive a game with his running and ability to go outside or use the underlap to create problems for teams. He just didn’t do it enough…

73minutes: 2-2 (Hatate): This goal was lovely but enraging because again it comes from something we did not do enough of.

2 blue shirts go to press AJ and he doesn’t play safe, he drives the ball, quick pass to Yang (who done well when he came on) and McCowan has again found the pocket he’s so good in. AJ underlaps which keeps the defence spread, Yang plays it inside taking 4 blue shirts out of the game with a simple well hit lateral pass to McCowan, Reo makes the late run off the back, just like Raskin had done to us, McCowan finds the pass and a wee well placed right footer makes it 2-2. Dancing, we’ve got momentum with us…. until we don’t and it’s 2 days on and I’m 2000 words in and back to being angry again. Freebies, weak as piss, players switched off, poor decision making, falling on yer arse and the rest….

87 minutes: 2-3 (Igamane): No picture I can take explains just how poor this goal is. A goal kick…. It travels 60 yards and Dessers jumps with no contact on him, misses it. CCV a half yard off misses it, the bounce leaves AJ on his arse and Nawrocki is caught in 2 minds as Igamane has seen the chance before Nawrocki has read the danger and for me fears the pace and makes the wrong choice to stand off Igamane. I know he also fears the ball outside to the left but standing 3 yards off is not stopping anything. It gets worse, AJ gets back in and tackles Igamane with his left foot which appears to be the equivalent of being touched a moth. The ball sits up nicely and that was that.

Sadly at no point after that did I feel like we would get another goal, and even if we did the volume of cheap efforts we allowed them throughout just made it feel like we weren’t going to win.

Game Data: The image below is produced by Ben Griffis (details on his sheet) and you don’t need to be a data guru to see some key things that played out. I’ve always said I’m 51% eyes and 49% data because I believe in the human elements, the context of what has gone on in a game and how players and managers react. Data for me adds factual details to what is an ever-changing picture but one thing in football never changes. Clean sheets guarantee you a point in league games and goals win games. Ideally you do the first one and the second one, on Sunday we were lacking in both categories.

My own little notes with eyes and from the data taken from various OPTA sources including the graphic below:

· Our focus was clearly down our right side and we know Kuhn was hooked at HT and on the 1^st half performance it’s easy to see why, data was not required. He had the look of a player who wasn’t fussed and in these games that’s a huge no

· We were very safe and at times, almost timid in our approach throughout the game which is not like us

· They had a focus down our left, which was a concern discussed on Fridays podcast. They used the wingback and movements from Raskin and Diomande to good effect in that area

· They are clearly willing to be more direct and look for pressure on the second ball, not a million miles off the way Nottingham Forest currently play with variations of the 4- and 5-man defence

· Our xT (Expected threat) was better down the left, a side we didn’t bother with in the first half even when we seen Jota had them on strings, in the second half I think we seen they also still very much feared Daizen on that side, so maybe he’s a number 9 vs everyone else and vs them he plays wide and continues to haunt them… something to ponder

· We had more control of territory, possession, made more passes and had a higher xG but we never really had control of the game and they had the Cerny chance that he made a complete mess of that won’t be reflected in the way it could and should have in that xG

· McCowan in the 10 area is a threat but he needs to work a lot on what he does defensively and in deeper areas

· The team lacks aggression and a ball winner in the middle in games that are like this, we’ve needed it for years. Daizen won more tackles than any of our players with 3. If you compare the starting midfield three for both sides the won the tackle battle 8-1. That cannot happen, that for me is not a skill gap it’s a mentality issue. You have to be in the fight to have a chance of winning. You have to have a willingness to do the dirty work, win the tackles, get in players faces, be touch tight and let them know: YOU GET NOTHING FOR FREE VS ME OR MY BHOYS

· Rangers won almost double the number of tackles overall. 19-10 and that is a real concern imo. If you are losing that many duels in the game then chances are you are losing the game

· They won more of the ball high up the pitch with 5 recoveries to our 2, and they were under less pressure when they had the ball in defence, making more passes than we did in those areas which shows the difference in how each team pressed the game

· My biggest irk overall… I didn’t feel like the team played for each other for large parts of the game and some at times were not just guilty of that but at times they were guilty of being lazy.

Conclusion

This is one game in what has been a successful season, but it’s now 3 games vs them where we’ve been struggling in some fundamental areas. The solutions with what we have in the player pool and staff for me are more mental than physical or technical. We have good players, even the ones who were poor in this game are good players and mentally they have shown many times that they can take hits and hit back, but in this fixture they all need to find more inside of themselves. It’s easy for me to say be tough, be brave and show what you’ve got but Rodgers and his team need to make sure they believe in it….

If it was me, I’d be pulling Engels and pointing to his favourite player De Bruyne and saying look at the aggression he has to show in his game and that’s why he’s not just really good, that’s why he is elite. If you want to be that guy then have a good look at what that guy is on the pitch, he is a technical god and he’s got a nice edge

McCowan…. You have fought tooth and nail to get to this point. Keep fighting tooth and nail because your journey has so much more left in it. Scotland squads, major tournaments and all the things we dream of as kids are right there for you, but you need to be on it every moment to fulfill those dreams.

Kasper, you’re not going on that Overlap pish again, being near Carragher is probably more of curse than that Drake bloke having a bet on you :P

Thanks for staying with me if you made it this far and as always, I love reading your thoughts in the chat or comments section so if you have anything you want to add I’d love to read it. Apologies if I go off on tangents, that’s just me. I’m no writer, I wouldn’t claim to be the worlds best analyst, especially immediately after a game because it’s raw and I like to watch Celtic as a supporter first and foremost and enjoy the rollercoaster of emotions that are part of the deal with being a fan. The finer details can wait for a day or two. Lastly, my apologies for making you suffer that game again.

I’m away for lie down now.

Ross Hall (apparently some think this might not be my real name……)