Celtic 6
xG 2.74
(Forrest 9, 24 & 58, Giakoumakis 18 & 73 and Maeda 89)
Hibernian 1
xG 0.44
(Youan 56)
Celtic's Post Shot xG was 67% higher than the xG and that's the highest positive variance this season in the league. The Post Shot xG was 4.58.
Helping contribute towards that figure were;
James Forrest 0.92 xG and 1.7 Post Shot xG (85% positive variance)
Georgios Giakoumakis 0.67 xG and 1.3 Post Shot xG (94% positive variance)
Liel Abada 0.36 xG and 0.65 Post Shot xG (81% positive variance)
Daizen Maeda 0.22 xG and 0.93 Post Shot xG (322% positive variance)
Celtic lined up with 5 personnel changes from the Champions League game which has been quite common now in the league with Ange utilising the squad. However there was only 2 personnel changes from last week's league game against St Johnstone with Mooy coming in for Jota and Forrest for Abada.
Hart
Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Welsh and Bernabei
Mooy, O'Riley and Hatate
Forrest, Giakoumakis and Haksabanovic
Jota, McGregor, Turnbull, Welsh and Starfelt all out injured.
Maeda, Abildgaard, Abada, Furuhashi and McCarthy all came on as subs.
Mooy played in the right midfield role allowing O'Riley to remain in the No.6 role. Previous games have saw the team play for as a 4-2-3-1 but this game and that little tweak saw the team back to a 4-3-3 shape.
Player positions look like a 2-3-2-3 formation which replicates earlier in the season.
I mentioned pre match that fans might change their opinion on Mooy after the game now that he was getting meaningful minutes alongside Hatate and O'Riley as previously he wasn't given this opportunity as his minutes were in the vast majority of cases without them.
Mooy had 74 touches and 57 passes and he is averaging 83 accurate passes per 90 in the league for all appearances so far this season. That is 2nd in the league to James Sands. He had 0.41 xA and 2 assists in this game. Mooy's 74 touches as a No.8 has only been beaten once (either by a No.8 or No.10) for Celtic which was O'Riley's 79 touches away to Ross County.
Mooy is also 4th in the league (highest Celtic player) for accurate long balls per 90 at 6.3 and he had 5 in this game at a 71% accuracy rate. He also had 9 passes into the final third, won 3 out of 4 tackles attempted and had 7 recoveries.
I highlighted James Forrest in Player Watch in my Leipzig match review
https://www.celtictrends.com/post/celtic-v-rb-leipzig-match-stats and it was good to see him get a run out in this game and even better to see him capitalise on starting the game. Scoring 3 goals to make the 100 goals tally is doing it in style and it is was even more fitting that he joined that elite group of 30 on a day one of them (Frank McGarvey) was on the pitch thanking the fans for the support he has had recently. Forrest also had 0.12 xA.
There should also be a mention for Sead Haksabanovic who had 0.64 xA in the game and the first assist of the game.
29% of Celtic's attacks came through the middle and that is a big jump from the last 3 league games average of 19%. Maybe the impact of Aaron Mooy on the ball a lot.
Summary;
Performance - Post Shot xG variance (67%) was the highest of the season.
Style - Formation changed from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 due to Mooy's inclusion.
Player watch - Mooy had 74 touches, 5 accurate long balls, 2 assists and 0.41 xA.
Celtic Trends 🍀📈⚽️
Tony@CelticTrends.com
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