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Celtic vs PSG thread- said to my father-in-law at halftime that "I think we could beat then at Celtic Park if we played like that." A lot to be encouraged by but endemic issues persist and I fear the positives and lessons from the game may be ignored. xG 0.65 vs 1.33 shots 8vs11.
Looking at first half where we faced their 1st team, xG was 0.39 vs 0.45 and possession was about 47%-53%. Why is this encouraging? PSG avg CL this season is 1.81 xG, 11.5 shots and 53% possession. They've only held to 1.33 xG or lower 6 of 35 games in Ligue+CL in 19-20 season.
So like the EL campaign where Brown was out injured, our midfield and team once again excels defensively in his absence. I am a broken record, but chance creation is our problem in Europe! Let's look at two concepts I think are worthwhile from the game- transitions and creation.
I have been critical of Lennon's pressing tactics in that he seems to deploy a similar strategy domestically and against better sides in Europe. Here we see our high press in the 1st minute which precedes the goal- acres of space between the midfield and backline.
Literally 1 second later a single pack pass takes out our entire midfield line and the break is on! Pressing that high is one question but then a 2nd is what profile of player is needed to recover in transition when the press is beaten? 2nd image is moment of the throughball pass
Theoretically one could be critical of Bitton and Frimpong here, but they have barely played together and Mbappe's pace makes Frimpong's look pedestrian! Here we see 2 seconds later and Mbappe's gained distance on Frimpong. Hopefully a good learning opportunity for him.
There was a similar run Mbappe made in the 7th minute in the same channel, where the pass wasn't quite as precise and Mbappe was pushed left a bit and ended in a cross from the byline which Bain secured. Next we look at another pressing and transition sequence.
Again we see how high we are and this time PSG chips over our press- arrow in 2nd image highlights target of the pass. Note the position of Taylor in 1st pic once PSG wins the ball back and midfield 3 in yellow in both pics. Ball played left to Neymar and look where Frimpong is.
Players get out of position, lines are broken, and mistakes are made. Question is are players athletic and good enough to recover? Next 2 pics show Frimpong's recovery to track Neymar with the ball, then our defenders and midfielders collapsing in the box.
Christie and McGregor in the box making it 6 vs 3. Ntcham and Taylor also in support with Ntcham in mop up position to win the loose ball as the PSG player is tackled. Even if one assumes Brown could have made that run, would you rather have he or Ntcham starting a counter?
Now we go to the 12th minute which is right after Celtic started to take control of the game, with most of that coming from McGregor and particularly Ntcham. We sustained pressure in the final third but were inefficient and wasteful. Here we see Taylor in possession.
5 seconds later he has dilly dallied about (technical term) and is suffocated to pass the ball back. He was frequently in dangerous positions, to his credit, but he just doesn't have the required creativity in his locker, IMO. He lead the team with 15 turnovers in 74 minutes.
Moi has also had a similar issue at Celtic. At CL level with Basel he averaged 12 turnovers over 1,035 minutes. He is clearly an excellent player but seems to play better when linking up with other players in triangles etc. vs taking on ppl 1 vs 1 wide in space.
He's averaged 17.46 turnovers in 603 minutes at Celtic vs good European opposition, including EL and the 3 friendlies in France. I've regularly expressed concern about his fit with Edouard in a 4-2-3-1 vs better sides, and the PSG game further confirmed my bias.
So 3 games against good to excellent EU sides and the lessons of 2019-2020 games against better sides persist. Midfield better w/o Brown, we need more creativity from LB/LWB, and have to get Edouard/strikers more involved. End
One quick addition on McGregor- seen a lot of people express how "quiet" he was. He completed 53 of 58 passes, won 9 of 13 duels, had 11 interceptions, and 10 ball recoveries. He did a lot of the dirty work to empower Ntcham to create.
