Jablonec 2
xG 1.69 (Pilar 17, Bitton OG 85) Celtic 4
xG 3.54 (Abada 12, Furuhashi 16, Forrest 64 and Christie 90)
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Jablonec lined up with the formation and players as predicted in the match preview.
Celtic lined up with prediced 4-3-3 formation but with a surprise in that Furuhashi was playing centre forward. Most fans predicted Ajeti would start over Edouard on our first competitive game against Midtjylland (and got that wrong) and the majority predicted Edouard would start this game as well. Despite the fact some fans have been discussing the prospect of Furuhashi playing through the middle as opposed to wide left. Another change was Joe Hart coming in for his debut in goals but many had predicted that to happen.
Celtic line up (with accurate passes included) opposite.
Rogic, Edouard and Christie all came on for Turnbull, Furuhashi and Abada on 65mins. With Christie going wide left and Forrest switching to wide right.
Hart had 34 accurate passes which was the same as Barkas in our home game against Midtjylland.
Ralston and Taylor had 5% and 7% of the team's total passes and this was the lowest either have had in our 4 competitive games. Bitton and Starfelt both had 93% pass accuracy.
Our xG of 3.54 was the best we have had since Hamilton at home on the first day of last season.
Furuhashi had an xG of 1.18 which is the highest of any players this season so far and he only played 65 minutes. (The 2nd highest was Christie at home to Midtjylland with 0.84). Forrest was Fotmob MotM with a rating of 8.36 and he had an xG of 0.7, 4 shots at goal, an assist, 3 crosses and a goal with his left foot. We had 17 shots at goal, 8 of them were on target (47%) and 13 were in the box. % on target actual on target and box shots were our highest of the season so far. xG per shot was 0.208 was also our highest of the season and something we will have as a main objective this year so it is good to see that improving. Furuhashi's 0.59 xG per shot made a significant impact on that.
Possession was 66% but was actually 68% for the first half. That 66% was better than the 2 games against Midtjylland. Passing accuracy was 86% and total accurate passes were 619 and long ball accuracy of 33% was our lowest of the season so far.
Our tackles win % of 53% was our lowest of the season so far while our dribble success of 70% was our highest so far with 21 dribbles won in total with Soro the best contributor on 4 out of 4 won.
I've been calling for Edouard to be replaced in the centre forward role as we are not clinical enough with him there. I was happy enough for him to remain in the team (played wide left) due to his chance creation (and xA) and I also mentioned the fact he only put us in the lead 5 times last season (and 0 times this season).
Interestingly we had 5 players play in the 3 forward positions last night and 4 of the scored (with the exception of Edouard). Also on the topic of putting us in the lead that's twice now that Abada has done that.
This is not me jumping on the Eddy bashing bandwagon and I don't necessarily buy in to the not trying camp. Yeah he doesn't score many goals like Christie did last night but that's always been the case. I just think in this system with the players we have we need to be more clinical and players demanding of getting themselves a goal.
Because we made the game look easy and we made Jablonec look an average side shouldn't take away from the positives from last night. On another day we could easily have had another dodgy performance so let's be grateful for us getting off to winning ways.
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