Celtic Tactical Errors in Scottish Cup Final Loss
- By LIAM McBRIDE
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
It’s widely said that you can tell a lot about a game in the opening fifteen minutes.
That doesn’t always prove to be the case, thanks to the old football cliche: goals change games.
In terms of the Celtic tactical approach this season though, it has rung particularly true. When Brendan Rodgers' men break through, the floodgates open.
Even in the second half of the season, when domestic consistency has considerably dropped, there are numerous examples: Aberdeen away, Dundee United Away, St Johnstone in the Cup Semi-final, Kilmarnock at Celtic Park… the list goes on.
Rather unfortunately though, the reverse is also true. When the breakthrough doesn’t come in the first half, the team struggles to break down stubborn defenses. St Mirren at home, St Johnstone away and Hibs away spring to mind.
Yet, unusually, Alfie Dorrington’s own goal failed to change the shape of the game. Celtic never kicked on and ultimately, they paid for it.
Rodgers was less than impressed after the match, saying to Sky Sports,
“You have to accept that. It’s part of sport and part of football. And as long as you can look at it and reflect honestly then we can say we weren’t good enough in our quality. We’ve got no one else to blame.
Domestically, we set out to win the league, the League Cup and the Scottish Cup and we were one game from doing that. But this shows you how challenging and hard it is.”
Honesty is the best policy, and while some past managers have explained poor cup displays as “bad luck”, it’s relieving to see the 52-year-old take complete responsibility for the shortcoming.
Aberdeen Set Up Shows Celtic Tactical Frailties
Unsurprisingly, after losing 5-1 twice to Celtic in the last two outings, Aberdeen moved away from their usual 4-2-3-1 setup. Instead, they employed an incredibly defensive 5-3-2 out-of-possession formation.
Their back five stayed in a line, constantly shifting to the side Celtic had the ball, with the wingback ready to pressure either Maeda or Kuhn in possession.
When the Celtic defence had the ball - which was admittedly a fair portion of the game - Nisbet and Keskinen stayed central to try and limit McGregor’s space, while Clarkson and Palversa marked Engels and Bernardo.
Graeme Shinnie was the spare man who looked to tackle any Celtic runners.
Signs of Things to Come
So how did Celtic plan to combat this? Back fives are nothing new in Scottish football and can be tricky to break down. With Aberdeen flooding the central areas, one way of progressing would have been to play through the centre with quick passing and midfield rotations.
Another potential route would be to make your extra man out wide count, with doubling up and overlapping fullback runs.
This forces the opposition to either leave you with an extra man out wide or change their structure to leave more space centrally. However, with Taylor playing inverted, the first option was the only plausible one.
Below is a diagram of the game after twelve minutes. As you can see Celtic have their typical 4-3-3 setup. In this situation, the central areas are very crowded. So the best thing you could do as mentioned is widen the park by attacking down the left or right-hand side.
Ideally, you would want Scales to run into the space in front and force one of the Dons players to commit forward, likely Keskinen in this case. However, after two seasons of consistent first-team football in green and white, it’s clear that this isn’t something Scales feels confident enough to do.
Either way, he would understandably often pass to Taylor, finding Celtic in this situation.
Bernardo would then move out wide and find himself in possession with the Aberdeen players flooding out wide.
Yet, with the option to pass back or forward he usually opted for the former.
Conversely, on the right hand side, Engles or Johnston often found Kuhn, but when the German was pressured by his opposite man, he simply retreated.
Overall, it was a frustrating watch with Celtic continually shooting themselves in the foot with their lack of bravery. Aberdeen’s structure was solid, let’s not take that away from them, but there were still one on one’s all over the park, and when you have better quality players you must make that count.
Risk-taking is necessary. In that respect, the Hoops clearly missed Reo Hatate.
If anything Celtic seemed comfortable with their numerical advantage at the back, and as a result, most of the game was played around the halfway line.
So, that was the tactical battle on display. A very familiar one in world football between two teams unmatched in quality. The defending team tries to keep the pitch as small as possible, while the attackers aim to expand the game.
Tempo
However, the reality is, while Aberdeen were incredibly well drilled, had Celtic played at a greater pace, they would have been unable to maintain this structure.
Constantly shifting from side to side against the ball is energy sapping, and inevitably space would open up. Yet, with the reigning holders' slow pace in possession, that moment rarely came.
Namely, it was all incredibly predictable. A lack of shots and crosses meant the Aberdeen back five could sit comfortably without any need to move from their structure.
There is somewhat of a frown on shooting from range and crossing in modern-day football, yet they cause uncertainty, chaos and confusion. You only need to look at the Aberdeen equalizer to see as much.
It’s not to say that the 4 in a row champions didn’t have the chances. Many of these moments came from the few present turnovers. Daizen Maeda came incredibly close, as did Jeffrey Schlupp and Yang.
Yet, over the course of the 120 minutes, Celtic didn’t show enough ambition and speed to merit a victory. Ultimately, it was anyone’s game at penalties, and unlike the League Cup Final, the Bhoys came out the wrong side of a coin toss.
