Celtic Tactical Analysis: Sorting Out The Midfield Crisis
Of all the words you could use to describe Celtic’s capitulation against Rangers in the League Cup, "surprising" isn’t one of them.
Sunday lunchtime was always going to be a tough game for Martin O’Neill’s men.
This isn’t hindsight; this is just what recent times have warned us. For a considerable period, Ibrox has been a tough place to go for the Hoops.
Since four wins across the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons, the Hoops have managed just three wins in their last 16 visits. Throughout those seasons, there have been some bad Rangers sides - sides that have failed to lift a single trophy, sides that have failed to play a meaningful part in the title race, and a Rangers side that has tumbled to third place.
Nonetheless, Ibrox hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Celtic. Rangers have more wins at Celtic Park across the same period. The question becomes: why?
From a big-picture point of view, a lot of it is the style matchup. For years, the Bhoys have employed a possession-based game, poised on out-passing the opposition and playing through the pitch. Rangers, on the other hand, have been more pragmatic, caring little about the style and making the game as physical as possible. Long passes, corners, crosses - this is where they have caused Celtic problems.
Naturally then, when they play against the rest of the league, who often employ similar tactics in reverse to stifle Rangers, they drop a lot more points. In contrast, Celtic will outplay the opposition through on-the-ball quality.
Heading into this quarter-final, the champions were on a run of 16 straight victories in domestic football. In comparison, across the same period, Rangers won 11, lost 5, and drew one. For outsiders looking in, Celtic were major favourites. So why then did it all go so wrong?
There are quite a lot of reasons; we really could be here all day. However, the main issue once more was Celtic’s midfield and its inability to defend.
Rewind to the Lask game, watch the goals back. Time after time, Celtic lacked compactness, with opposition players allowed to take shots from outside the box at will. That day, MON lined up a midfield of Callum McGregor, Mika Baur, and Benjamin Nygren.
With the same midfield three at Ibrox, the same problems continuously arose.
For the first goal, Celtic failed to clear the ball out of play, and then a simple pass across the face of goal from Kevin Kelsy reached Dan Neil. The Englishman was inexplicably unmarked and able to get a shot off.
While the back four had been dragged around, there were still six players back compared to Rangers’ three forwards. How Neil was allowed so much time without a man near him remains a mystery.
The second goal was equally poorly defended. Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales got in a mix-up trying to win the ball from Ryan Naderi, while the originally out-of-position Kieran Tierney then shuffled along, leaving Kelsy unmarked at the back post. The Venezuelan would volley home.
The third goal was more akin to the first. The back four did their job, with Scales heading away. However, McGregor and Baur were too deep into the box, marking no one, and left Neil free for a shot again. The 24-year-old would find the roof of the net.
In two tough away games this season, the Hoops have conceded eight goals. If that’s not cause for alarm, I don’t know what is.
Can McGregor, Baur, and Nygren play together? Against most teams domestically: yes. However, the minute Celtic suffer any resistance in the game, they are unable to be compact and do the basics. Simply put, the current midfield three isn’t going to get you through matches where you don’t dominate; that simply isn’t sustainable.
And in terms of distributing the blame, most of it has to come down at Callum McGregor’s door. As the deepest of the midfield three, it’s his job to defend that area and keep the game compact in the central areas when Celtic don’t have the ball. Instead, the captain jogs about, seemingly unaware of the surrounding danger.
We did in fact hear from McGregor after the match, with the 33-year-old saying, “It was quite careless and slack in the moments where you actually think we now have half a foot in the game. We keep turning the ball over and then it's a counter attack which is what they want and they were good at to be fair. Probably all our own doing to be honest.
"I think the difference between the two sides was you've seen a team and then you've seen a team of individuals as well. Rangers were a team and you could see that. We looked like a team of individuals that wanted to do our own thing and play when we got the ball.
"Not necessarily run when you don't have the ball. That's the one thing you can't do when you come here is just don't run. You can't defend with six players, it's impossible. We're trying to get the message to everyone that we have to be a team.”
Needless to say, these are some pretty damning words - damning words, though, that lack a bit of self-awareness.
McGregor is correct to point out carelessness and slackness, but it also perfectly fits his own display on the ball. He mentions being a team of individuals all wanting to do their own thing, but he was hardly busting a gut to make tackles and get back into position. Instead, he continuously left his space free; I’m sure Dan Neil was grateful.
And for the point about compactness, it’s the midfield which joins the attack and defence; again, his area. So while his comments are true, many of the issues stem from his area of the pitch.
It’s not to say that McGregor was the only problem. Baur and Nygren also have very few physical attributes.
Moreover, the Hoops had very little going forward, with Colby Donovan and Haissem Hassan providing the only bright sparks.
Kieran Tierney and Sebastien Tounekti also really struggled on the left-hand side, while Kasper Høgh continued to look uncomfortable as a lone striker.
Nevertheless, the midfield remains a major issue. The amount of physicality and running power that Arne Engels brought to the midfield has yet to be replaced. Only time will tell whether Oliver Sørensen or Joël van den Berg fill that gap.
Although Celtic had an opportunity to bounce back with two home fixtures against Ferencváros and Rangers, their midfield crisis only deepened further. Against the Hungarians, Nygren dropped out for Sørensen, but the Dane struggled badly and was hooked at half-time.
Sørensen's performance was so poor that he then failed to make the bench against Rangers. Luke McCowan was a surprising inclusion in the starting line-up, but he suffered the same fate as Sørensen had before him, failing to emerge from the dressing room after the half-time break.
Three defeats on the bounce have plummeted Celtic into something of a tailspin, and some fans have even called for Martin O'Neill to be sacked. CEO Michael Nicholson followed this up by issuing a vote of confidence, but O'Neill will have to figure out his most effective starting XI - and fast. The international break should offer him some respite and an opportunity to do just that.
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