Celtic 2 xG 1.42 (Kyogo 14 and McGregor 81)
St Mirren 2 xG 1.10 (Main 4 and 39) Celtic having their strongest period of chance creation in the last quarter of the match.
0.32 Non Penalty xGD was Celtic's 5th lowest of the season and St Mirren's 1.1 xG was the 4th highest of any of Celtic's opponents this year. 2 of the other 3 (above 1.1 xG) were against Rangers.
Celtic's average xGD per game against St Mirren in the league this year is 0.98 and that is the lowest outside Rangers suggesting St Mirren have been the toughest opponents for Celtic this year outwith Rangers.
In the league games against St Mirren this year Celtic have been winning an average of 26 minutes per game and have been losing an average of 37.25 minutes. That's the lowest average of time winning and the highest average of losing of any team's Celtic have played this season including Rangers.
It was also the first time a team has taken the lead against Celtic twice in the same game since Ange's first game last season at Tynecastle.
Celtic's 0.068 xG per shot was their second lowest of the season with the lowest being against St Mirren also (September).
Celtic lined up with;
Hart
Ralston, Iwata, Starfelt and Taylor
O'Riley, McGregor and Hatate
Jota, Kyogo and Maeda
Only one change to the team that started versus Hearts two weeks ago with Iwata in for Kobayashi at centre back although there were four changes to the team that started versus Rangers last week. Iwata, Taylor, Kyogo and Maeda all coming in for Kobayashi, Bernabei, Oh and Abada.
The squad of 20 were the same as last week with Mooy still out injured.
For only the second time this season Ange only used 3 subs with Abada, Haksabanovic and Oh coming on for Maeda, O'Riley and Hatate. With Haksabanovic and Kyogo taking up midfield positions.
Starfelt had the most passes with 119 and Celtic's full backs and wingers had more passes than average with the full backs on 27% of Celtic's total (season average 23%) and the wide forwards with 15% (season average 12%). The biggest xG contributors in the match were Main (0.76) and Strain (0.29) from St Mirren with Kyogo the highest Celtic player on 0.24. Next was O'Riley and Iwata on 0.22 each. Main had a Post Shot xG of 0.74 and had 2 goals and Kyogo's Post Shot xG was 0.8 with 1 goal. For xA the best was St Mirren's Ryan Strain on 0.73 with Jota next on 0.63. Greg Kiltie was 3rd on 0.38 with O'Riley (0.31) and Ralston (0.29) the next best for Celtic.
Ryan Strain is 9th in the SPFL (not including Celtic and Rangers players and any players playing less than 20% of the season (648 minutes) for xA at 0.18 per 90. He's also only behind Barisic, Tavernier, Ralston and Kennedy (Aberdeen) for full backs.
I mentioned in my preview https://www.celtictrends.com/post/celtic-v-st-mirren-match-preview-1 that he was the top rated St Mirren player this season.
Sponsored by YnoT Business Solutions
Celtic Trends 🍀📈⚽️ www.CelticTrends.com https://twitter.com/Tony_McLaughlin https://www.facebook.com/CelticTrend Tony@CelticTrends.com