The Derby Midfield "Battle"

Celtic's win was overwhelming - ask their fans - but the midfield skirmishes were more nuanced

In the Huddle Breakdown derby review (please subscribe), James thought the midfield battle was more closely fought than post-game narratives had suggested.

Phillipe Clement’s man-to-man orientation had nullified Celtic’s three (Callum McGregor, Paolo Bernardo and Reo Hatate) to some extent but at the cost of disruption to their shape. When marking man to man, you follow your assigned protagonist and can be dragged into areas of the pitch that expose other places for the opposition to attack.

Thanks for reading Celtic By Numbers! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribed

I wanted to break that down some.

Packing

Let’s consider the overall packing data across both sets of midfielders.

Remember that:

·        Pack Passes = forward passes that take at least one opponent out of the game

·        Pack Receives = receiving a forward pass under control that takes at least one opponent out of the game

·        Pack Recovery = gaining possession of the ball after an opposition turnover or forcing a turnover such that opponents are out of the game

·        Pack Turnover = losing possession such that your teammates are out of the game (a negative score).

Allowing for substitutes, the overall packing scores were:

Celtic achieved the higher packing scores. This is a “good thing” but it wasn’t a hammering.

Callum McGregor just about outscored Connor Barron.

The combined scores for Paolo Bernardo and Arne Engels were lower than for Dujon Sterling and Nico Raskin.

Reo Hatate has the second-highest packing score in the game (111 to James Tavernier’s 117 – l and indeed ol) and he and Luke McCowan racked up 135 compared to 89 from Mohamed Diomande and Tom Lawrence.

Last season's averages for the Celtic players were:

Hatate – 89.51

McGregor – 68.94

Bernardo – 61.75

Hatate exceeded his average from last year and continued his great start to the season, Bernardo was around it, and McGregor’s overall packing score was lower than last term.

Some indication then that their focus on restricting McGregor was successful to a degree.

When we break it down further into the components of packing across the midfielders.

We see that the Celtic midfielder was more successful in completing and receiving forward passes although, again, not overwhelmingly.

The Rangers midfielders achieved twice as many recoveries and gave up half as many turnovers.

In other words, Celtic’s midfield edged the ball progression “battle” whilst The Rangers midfielders were successful in stopping Celtic playing to a greater extent.

Creative Passing

In terms of chance creation, the combined data for the contributing players was as follows.

Whilst Celtic’s five created one more chance that The Rangers’s five, with a resultant higher xG this is slim pickings overall.

Secondary assisting passes were also three to two in Celtic’s favour.

The appropriate football cliché = “cancelling each other out”.

Bear in mind also that The Rangers, according to Statsbomb, won eleven high regains compared to five by Celtic.

Further evidence of the efforts they were making to nullify Celtic by pressing high.

Summary

As Derek McInnes has demonstrated over nearly 10 years of challenging Celtic, man-to-man midfield marking can disrupt rhythm and patterns for the Champions. However, you only need to get smashed in the face once for it to fall to pieces and an opening is created that is game-winning. Celtic did that with their first attack when Nicolas Kuhn was on the wrong end of a dubious offside call.

There is no doubt which side won the “war”, and handsomely so.

When taking central midfield in the round, I could make a case for that “battle” to have been drawn or at least for The Rangers to have had some success stymying Celtic’s attacking flow, but ultimately it was for nought.

I would not characterise this as “winning the midfield” more inconveniencing and limiting Celtic’s midfield with some success.

Heh, someone used binary language when the data points to a nuanced story!

Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind. Pile on (then fuck off).