Some positive news to talk about for a change.
Looking at the Stats from Wednesday night there were some good stats and some not so good stats and the level of opposition had to be taken into consideration as well. A win is great and especially a 4-0 win however looking at the level of opposition an away game versus Kilmarnock is currently easier than a home game versus St Mirren. So it's not that straight forward to assume we progressed that much from Saturday. (I've done a comparison on home teams and away teams and ranking of our opponents here ............ (https://tony69mclaughlin69.wixsite.com/website/post/kilmarnock-home-team-not-as-good-as-st-mirren-away-team)
One stat that was a real positive is a stat I monitor closely which is touches of the ball in the opposition box. It is an indicator of our pressure and potential chance creation. We had 46 touches in the Kilmarnock box on Wednesday. This is the most touches in the box we have had against any opponent this season.
I’ve also looked at touches in the box per formation. Green is 4231, Black is 352, Yellow is 442Diamond and Amber is 433False9.
433 produced only 15 touches in the box but it was one of the Dubai games versus Livingston. Outwith this game 352 produced the lowest touches in the box average at 26 , 4231 produced an average of 31.6 and the 442Diamond has produced the most with an average of 32.4 touches in our opponents box per game. These figures also include some outliers (both Rangers games and both Dubai affected games which are obviously low figures games). Take these outliers out and 352 increases to 28.5 and 442D increases to 37.7 touches in the box.
Therefore 442D producing 19% more in box touches than 4231 and 32% more in box touches than 352. I've also looked at ranking of opponent (as mentioned earlier I have a separate blog on this https://tony69mclaughlin69.wixsite.com/website/post/kilmarnock-home-team-not-as-good-as-st-mirren-away-team) and 442D has had the tougher opponents with an average ranking of 12 (whereas 352 had an average of 13.4 and 4231 had an average ranking of 14.8).
So positive news that 442D is producing more touches in the box for Celtic.
I’ve omitted the 4 outlier games from the below chart.
There was a drop earlier in the season but you can see this has been gradually improving since a low point versus Livingston at home. As the graph moves along the season we hit our peak against Kilmarnock with 46 touches in the box on Wednesday evening.
This is a big positive to take from the game.