Ross County 0
xG 0.38
Celtic 2
xG 2.63
(Furuhashi 12 and Jota 87)
The one thing that jumped out to me in the stats for this match was Carter-Vickers lack of passes. Carter-Vickers had only 51 attempted passes in the game compared to Starfelt's 102. Carter-Vickers had 8.7% of the team's total passes and that was his lowest this calendar year. His average this calendar year is 12.2%.
His average position (below at the team line up) was very central rather than to the right and he his heat map shows more activity on the left of the edge of the box than on the right.
Between them Carter-Vickers and Ralston had 17.5% of the team's total passes and the average this calendar year for right centre back and right back is 26%. Ralston's 8.8% was the 2nd lowest behind Juranovic's 8.6% versus Rangers in February.
Maybe the fact that Ross County's attacks were 67% down their right is a contributory factor as our average from opponents down the year has been 43% this season. 67% is the highest with 61% 2nd highest. Only 19% of Ross County's attacks were down their left. 19 and 67 they are 2 numbers that go well together.
Did Ross County identify Taylor and Starfelt as a weakness? Does Taylor's good performance become even more significant then?
Hatate/Turnbull had 67 passes in that left sided midfield role which was 11.4% of the team's total. That's the highest this calendar year from that position with the average being 8.8%. Hatate getting more involved?
Celtic lined up with;
- Hart
- Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt and Taylor
- O'Riley, McGregor and Hatate
- Jota, Kyogo and Maeda
Two changes from the semi final defeat with Ralston, O'Riley and Kyogo coming in for Juranovic, Rogic and Abada.
Giakoumakis, O'Riley, Abada, Turnbull and Forrest all came on as subs. Jullien was missing from the bench and Scales was in but I wouldn't read anything into that. Scales was in to replace Ralston and Jullien was replaced by Giakoumakis.
Top 2 for xG were Jota (0.93) and Kyogo (0.86) and top 2 for xA were Jota (0.6) and Abada (0.26). Jota contributing 1.53 and hopefully this helps quiet a little bit the crazy talk amongst some fans that we shouldn't buy him permanently for a week or two.
O'Riley who is a bit more of a risk taker with passes (which is good) had the best passing accuracy at 90%.
As per the norm this season (although not so much recently) Celtic had their lowest touches during the 60-75 minute spell with only 89 touches and 61% possession. Subs coming on during this period disrupts play so you could consider that but Ross County did have their most touches (76) during this period.
Again though Carter-Vickers and Hart didn't concede in the league in the last 20 minutes.
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Tony@CelticTrends.com