Analysis Corner: Where the Old Firm game was won and lost
By Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright)
When both teams score with their first shot of the game, you know it’s going to be an interesting match.
Sunday’s derby between the champions and pretenders was thrilling viewing for the most part: a sold out Ibrox watched the Glasgow giants go back and forth, as the ten men of Celtic pipped hosts Rangers to go nine points clear with a game in hand.
Let’s look at how this game was won and lost:
Tom Rogic
The Australian has been gently eased back into first team duty after a significant injury layoff. The midfielder is known for coming up trumps for his team when they’re looking for inspiration, whether it be a league winning strike against Kilmarnock, or a treble winning goal against Aberdeen.
Rogic actually possesses a pretty rare skill: having the strength and technical ability to dribble with the ball in the centre of the park. When you typically think about dribbling, you think of wingers. Generally this is because a) there tends to be fewer opposition players out wide and b) if you get tackled there, the ball tends to go out of play, rather than picked up as an interception. So players are rarely encouraged to dribble centrally.
Yet, Rogic manages to pull this off time and again. If you look at his goal on Sunday, he does a lovely shimmy to shift the ball away from Sean Goss, then has the sheer strength to make the English midfielder bounce off him.
Giving the Australian so much space on the ball was not a mistake Rangers were willing to make twice, sitting notably deeper than before in the centre. Unfortunately, this freed up room for Forrest, McGregor and Dembele to make all sorts of interesting runs around the Rangers half as Celtic took control of the game.
Cardoso for Bates
In the aftermath of Rogic’s equaliser, not only did Rangers find themselves pegged back, but also a man down, with David Bates injuring himself in attempt to block the shot.
Having only played one injury time minute of football this year, Fabio Cardoso’s arrival certainly helped Celtic. Before the Portuguese’s arrival, Dembele wasn’t sure which of Bruno Alves or David Bates to target. Both tended to sit deep, and both could match Dembele for strength in the air.
However, when Cardoso came on, Dembele’s target became clear. Time and time again Dembele won the ball from the Rangers’ substitute who had decided to step higher up than Bates, and take on the French striker in close combat. Throughout the game, the pair would clash eleven times, with Cardoso winning the ball on just three of these occasions.
This mismatch was ruthlessly exposed for the second goal, where Dembele beat Cardoso in strength and speed to pick up Scott Brown’s majestic 60 yard ball in the Rangers penalty area with time and space to make a superb lofted finish.
When a sending off may not be a disadvantage
One of the lessons from Sunday’s game may be that a prepared ten can beat an unprepared eleven.
After the game, Rodgers explained his decision to sub Rogic for Edouard. With Rangers facing a 10 man Celtic, the Celtic boss correctly predicted that the home side would throw full backs John and Tavernier forward. This meant that Alves and Cardoso would have to deal with Celtic’s two front men in a straight two vs. two fight.
Rangers have had a lot of trouble breaking down deep defensive blocks this season, and this was no different.
Twenty two second half crosses were easily dealt with by a Celtic team who were happy to sit deep in the knowledge that their hosts were running out of ideas. They rode their luck a couple of times, particularly when Alfredo Morelos contrived to hit the post from three yards out, but they were hardly under siege. Unusually, Candeias had a particular off day with his crossing, failing to find a blue jersey in any of his nine crosses.
On Morelos, it’s important to point out that the country’s top scorer in only 21 years old and has spent most of his career to date playing in front of a few hundred Finns. If he’s feeling the pressure in these games, then he has plenty of time ahead of him to get used to it. It’s a bit silly to write him off on the basis of a few missed chances.
However, as mentioned earlier, Rangers pouring bodies forward left Alves and Cardoso against Edouard and Dembele in their own half. The third goal (caused by Sean Goss failing to track Edouard’s run from the left wing) showed just how vulnerable Rangers were in this situation, despite the man advantage.
Rodgers has trained Celtic to play with or against ten men; Murty has not done similar with Rangers, and this ultimately decided the game for the away side.
Did Rangers do anything right?
Given that it’s less than twelve months since Celtic came out of the same fixture 5-1 winners, it’s clear that there’s been improvement at Ibrox.
Where in 2017 every Celtic player won their individual battle with ease, Rangers can count themselves unlucky not have ultimately come away with a point from Sunday’s game.
Jamie Murphy did particularly well on the left hand side, troubling Celtic’s back three on a few occasions, while Greg Docherty, Alfredo Morelos and Josh Windass all shone at points throughout the game too. There’s also further evidence that Rangers can be really dangerous on the counter attack, a trait certainly lacking from previous seasons.
It might be a work in progress, but it’s still miles better than last year.
What did Celtic gain from this?
Aside from a huge step towards the league title, there are a few reasons why Brendan Rodgers will be a happy man this week.
First of all, to paraphrase the man himself, the team showed “great character”. In spite of a host of injuries, a hostile atmosphere and a sending off, Celtic stayed largely calm as their players mostly went about their work diligently.
Jack Hendry and Scott Bain were playing at Ibrox earlier this season as Rangers thrashed Dundee 4-1. Despite their unexpected inclusion into the derby frenzy, neither put a foot wrong this time around. Bain was particularly accomplished in Celtic’s build up play, and it seems difficult to see how Dorus De Vries can make his way back into the first team.
Finally, the calculated gamble of bringing on a striker for a midfielder when reduced to 10 men is further proof that Rodgers is certainly no chequebook manager.
For more analysis like this, follow Dougie on Twitter (@dougie_wright)