Analysis Corner: Celtic v Rangers Review

By Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright)

The derby came at the best of times and the worst of times for Glasgow’s top two as they met at Parkhead on Sunday. The hosts had experienced a pretty miserable August that would start with a defeat at Tynecastle, end with the sale of Moussa Dembélé and have an early Champions League exit thrown in to top it off. A loss would have further darkened an already blackened mood, while a win would be just the tonic.

For the guests, Rangers were on a high after an unexpected qualification to the Europa League group stages. However, it had come at a cost with Thursday night’s trip to Russia hardly bettered by two players getting sent off during the game. A frustrating domestic start had seen Gerrard’s side come within a minute of a perfect record, but two last kick of the ball goals at Aberdeen and Motherwell had put a dampener on an otherwise sold start to the Englishman’s reign.

The knowledge that their hosts appeared wounded would have encouraged the blue half of Glasgow ahead of derby day, but midweek exertions raised questions as to just how deep this Rangers side could dig against their biggest rivals.

A couple of frustrated teams…apart from the goal

Rangers will legitimately claim tiredness after an exhausting 90 minutes in central Asia on Thursday. Indeed, the Ibrox side had only arrived back in Glasgow a mere 58 hours before Sunday’s derby.

Alfredo Morelos and Kyle Lafferty were largely poor for Rangers. Between them, the pair lost possession twenty-eight times, committed ten fouls and only won the ball back once.

However, the beauty of a football team is that glory and blame are usually shared, and this was no different. As their team mates were sitting so deep, there really weren’t too many link up options for the duo.

In hindsight, perhaps Steven Gerrard may have had more luck putting Ryan Kent on the left side and Candeias on the right. Kent is quick with the ball at feet and would have been up against the considerably slower Michael Lustig. Meanwhile, Daniel Candeias’ commitment to pressing off the ball would have been more effective against a rampant Kieran Tierney.

Nevertheless, Rangers plan was to sit in and frustrate Celtic. By and large, it worked.

Not all chances are equal. Usually you need to take around nine shots for one to go in. Anything outside the box is one in thirty. For a header, it’s half as likely to go in as a kicked shot from the same location.

Obviously you don’t want your shot blocked. It usually indicates that you didn’t have enough time or space to shoot in the first place.

So generally speaking, if most of your shots are from distance, headers or blocked, it probably means you aren’t doing a fantastic job of breaking down your opponent. This image sums most of the game up:

Rangers very deep with all but Lafferty and Morelos in or around the penalty box (remember what I said about those two being isolated?).

It meant Rangers struggled to get out, but it meant that Celtic struggled to slice them open as they did with ease a few months ago.

In this game, the only of Celtic’s 16 shots that wasn’t a header, from a set piece or blocked was their goal. There’s your lesson of why quality beats quantity.

Men of the match

Olivier Ntcham was metronomic in midfield. As Celtic dominated possession and territory, the Frenchman showed a good passing range to keep Rangers’ defensive block moving up and down, side to side. With 81 passes throughout the game, he managed just seven less than Rangers’ midfield trio combined. Had Edouard and Rogic showed a bit more ingenuity further forward, you suspect that Celtic would have scored a few more.

While Ntcham was unfortunate not to have scored with a rasping drive from 25 yards, his goal was merited given his contribution.

Furthermore, many Celtic fans will now have an awkward time with Dedryck Boyata. Given his refusal to play for the club a fortnight ago (and indirectly contributing to his club’s Champions League elimination), the Belgian was disowned by many of the Celtic support. The Green Brigade pointed out that he “wasn’t fit to wear the journey”.

Whether or not the support forgave him, Brendan Rodgers did. The consequence has been three clean sheets in a row as the Belgian demonstrated why he had attracted such interest in the transfer market in the first place.

During the 90 minutes, Boyata didn’t give the ball away once. He didn’t lose a single header in his own box. He let Morelos turn him on the touchline once but other than that, it was an utterly commanding performance. It’s no coincidence that Celtic’s defensive discipline returned alongside Boyata.

Where do both teams go from here?

Celtic fans will like to think that this game will be the shot in the arm that their season needs- a time where the staff, players and fans can let bygones be bygones and push on for further success.

While that may well be the case, Rodgers has built a team that almost always rises to the big occasions in Scotland. The real test will be whether they can keep up such an intensity of play in the more humdrum matches. In the Invincible season, they had no problem with this; last season they started to become complacent after January.

Nevertheless, this can be the spark Celtic fans were hoping for after a miserable couple of weeks.

For Rangers, while the fatigue complaint is valid, there is a trend that Gerrard will need to address over the international break. After four games, this Rangers side is giving up more shots than it takes. While playing against Celtic and going down to ten men against Aberdeen and St Mirren won’t have helped, they were comfortably outshot by Motherwell last weekend as well.

A gentle run of games over the next month will test whether this is sheer bad luck or a deeper cause for concern.

For more analysis like this, follow Dougie on Twitter (@dougie_wright)

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