Analysis Corner: Scottish Cup Final Review

By Dougie Wright (@dougie_analysis)

Aberdeen’s Tactics and a Successful First Half

So often this season, Celtic have been successful winning the ball high up in the opposition half. This allows them to take advantage of any defensive disorganization as a result of any opposition sloppiness in transitioning into their defensive structure.

On Saturday, Aberdeen were clearly wary of this. Consequently, they decided to not give Celtic any opportunity to win the ball back in their half. Any time an Aberdeen player received the ball in the Aberdeen half, it either went long, or it went back to Joe Lewis (who would then punt it long).

Meanwhile, when Celtic had the ball, almost every single red shirt would drop back into the Aberdeen half. Furthermore, one of Ryan Jack and Graeme Shinnie would form the head of a triangle with centre backs Ash Taylor and Mark Reynolds. Players like Patrick Roberts, Stuart Armstrong and Tom Rogic thrive on their versatility. They can come inside, go wide, attack from deep, or play off the striker. In keeping either Shinnie or Jack permanently close to Taylor and Reynolds, Aberdeen ensured that whatever position Celtic’s attackers took, they would always face a congested centre.

This clearly frustrated Celtic in the first half who only managed one shot on target (Stuart Armstrong’s equalizer from outside the box).

However, it’s not enough to be able to merely stifle your opponent- you must find a way of creating good opportunities for yourself too. As much as Aberdeen track back in numbers when defending, so too do the Celtic attackers show similar work rate. It is not uncommon to see the likes of Scott Sinclair, Patrick Roberts or Stuart Armstrong pressing hard in their own final third.

Therefore, Aberdeen employed pinball tactics when they were deep in Celtic territory. One touch passing, headers and flick ons were used so that no player could really be caught in possession. Jayden Stockley (6ft 3) was preferred to Adam Rooney (5ft 10) as a target man in order to physically compete with the Celtic backline. Saturday was not about Aberdeen wanting to get in behind Celtic, it was about Aberdeen going to war with them.

Therefore, while Aberdeen only had 33% possession in the first half, they were largely successful in limiting Celtic’s attacking threat and maximizing their own. They scored from a well-timed set piece, and only conceded from a 25 yard strike from Stuart Armstrong- his 10th goal from outside the box this season.

Celtic and the Comeback

To put it into simple terms, Aberdeen’s first half involved a massive amount of running. The midfield in particular had to be so sharp when tracking back so that their side could outnumber their opponents in defence. Furthermore, Jayden Stockley was wrestling with either Simunovic or Boyata every two minues.

Such physical rigour evidently took its toll on the Dons who started to show signs of fatigue from the first ten minutes of the second half. A couple of ill-judged presses for Shinnie and Jack created some space between the midfield and defence which Celtic would exploit. This seemed to spook Aberdeen, whose response was to do away with the defensive triangle that had served them so well in the first half. Instead, both Jack and Shinnie abandoned thoughts of pushing up the park, and sat just ahead of Taylor and Reynolds.

When Stockley was replaced by Adam Rooney after fifteen minutes of the second half, Aberdeen’s game plan was falling to pieces. No longer did they have a physical presence to hold up the ball in Stockley; no longer did they have one of Shinnie or Jack supporting the attack from midfield. Their structure had gone. Here’s an example from deep into the second half where the ball falls to Jonny Hayes after a Celtic corner is cleared.

Hayes is the furthest Aberdeen player forward; he has no real options on the ball. He is quickly dispossessed, and Celtic start another attack.

The result of this tactical change was an Aberdeen side who had no attacking outlet, forcing them to defend deeper and deeper until the defence was almost permanently defending their six yard box.

Meanwhile, Shinnie and Jack dropping in front of the centre backs gave Armstrong and Rogic time and space to attack the Aberdeen final third from the corridors.

Being out of possession is not necessarily too bad if you still have control of the territory, as was the case for Aberdeen in the first 45 minutes. However, in the second half, they controlled neither the ball nor the territory. This puts a huge mental drain on the team, who were constantly firefighting.

And so Celtic dominated, passing up several good opportunities to score. The chances were becoming constant with Celitc waltzing into the final third time and time again, being denied by Joe Lewis, the post, or their own inaccuracy.

However, they were to get their reward in injury time. When Rogic picked up the ball 40 yards just past the halfway line, nobody expected an imminent goal. However, failure from first O’Connor and then Considine to put adequate pressure on the Australian midfielder led to Rogic being able to carry the ball right to the edge of the 6 yard box. After his earlier heroics, it was poor from Joe Lewis to be beaten at his near post in the end. That being said, this was a goal that had been a long time coming.

Conclusion

This was the game where Aberdeen showed the rest of Scotland how to play against Celtic. Keep them in their half, and make sure your midfield gets back in numbers when you lose the ball. Unfortunately, Aberdeen couldn’t keep up that intensity for longer than the first 50 minutes and were ultimately punished for it.

For Celtic, while they rode their luck in the first half, they demonstrated the physical and mental stamina that has served them so well this season in the second. As Aberdeen dropped deeper, Celtic became much more aggressive in their forward play, outshooting Aberdeen by eighteen shots to two in the second half. When Tom Rogic hit the injury time winner to clinch the treble, it was no less than his side deserved.

I’ll now be taking a short break myself over the summer. I hope you’ve enjoyed these articles as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. Have a great summer, and I’ll see you when it all kicks off again!

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