Celtic 2
xG 3.39
(Kyogo 16 and Hatate 64)
Motherwell 1
xG 0.28
(Juranovic OG 36)
McGregor sent off 89 mins.
Celtic had their 2nd best performance of the season based on expected goals with xGD at 3.11 which was only bettered by the performance against Dundee Utd. At 3.39 the xG was 2nd best of the season and the xGA of 0.28 was the 4th lowest.
Celtic's xG per shot of 0.199 was their highest of the season so far.
Kyogo was the main contributor with an xG of 2.25 from 3 attempts at goal. His shots & headers map displayed to the right.
Abada had the most xA with 0.54 from 2 key passes.
What was surprising in the game was that 47% of Cektic's attacks came down the right hand side and their average for the season is only 33%. Normally the left is the wing more prominent for Celtic attacks at 41% however against Motherwell it was only 33% down the left. Greg Taylor lost 9 duels during the game and he only had 54 passes which is well down from his 89 versus St Mirren and 83 versus Dundee Utd.
Was this something Motherwell worked on or was it just simply that Taylor didn't get involved as much as normal?
35% of the team's passes came from the two centre backs and this is the highest % of the season with the average being 28% and last season's average being 29%. Again was this something Motherwell worked on? To let Celtic's centre backs to have the ball and drop off? Or was the passing from the team more risk averse with the St Mirren result still lingering in the team's mind? Maybe that St Mirren result will be out their system now.
David Turnbull had 27 passes in the 25 minutes he had on the park and 0.28 xA while Matt O'Riley had 20 passes and x0.01 for his 65 minutes.
Did Motherwell have a plan to restrict O'Riley's creativity as he has the most xA per 90 of any player in the league?
O'Riley had 35 passes in 62 minutes versus Dundee Utd.
Turnbull's touch map v Motherwell at the top and O'Riley's touch map v Motherwell below.
O'Riley having more touches around the box.
Celtic lined up with first choice players - Juranovic, Hatate, O'Riley and Jota - coming back in and going with;
- Hart
- Juranovic, Welsh, Jenz and Taylor
- McGregor and Hatate
- Maeda, O'Riley and Jota
- Kyogo
Turnbull, Abada, Haksabanovic, Abildgaard and Mooy coming on for O'Riley, Maeda, Kyogo, Hatate and Jota.
Accurate passes trends through the match showed that the gap became lower in a nervy last 15 minutes with Celtic having only 70 accurate passes and Motherwell having 50 in that timeframe.
Celtic enjoying dominance from 15 to 30 minutes with 121 accurate passes to 21.
McGregor being sent off would have had no impact on that as he was sent off in the 89th minute.
The xG trendline showed that the gap was wide throughout the game for chance creation and that gap continued to get wider as the game progressed.
As much as Celtic's xG was good at 3.39 their Post Shot xG was only 1.72 highlighting a day of bad or unlucky finishing although the post and bar shots are classed as off target. 1.72 Post Shot xG is the 2nd lowest of the season after the St Mirren game.
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Tony@CelticTrends.com