Trusting the Scales of Performance

Amidst the reality of trade-offs in selecting starting players, an assessment of the centre-backs Auston Trusty and Liam Scales.

On this week's Extra Time, I went into detail on the differences between Greg Taylor and Jeffrey Schlupp regarding who should be the starting left back for the rest of the season. You can also read all the numbers and analysis in the Celtic Way.

For most clubs not able to craft a highly expensive squad where every tactical nuance can be countered, life is about a series of trade-offs regarding which player best suits each situation.

Celtic are very much a side who, given domestic dominance, set up predictably and ask the opponents to deal with it. As James is fond of recounting, in American sports, where the competitive environment is artificially managed through various cost control levers, no relegation, and the draft system, such an approach is anathema. The qualitative difference between teams is, in essence, regulated to be as close as possible. Most teams in most sports will endeavour to tweak tactics and personnel to counter their next opponent.

As Sunday’s Scottish Cup Semi-Final opponents, St Johnstone will no doubt do. Having settled into variants on 3-4-3 since the New Year, when Simone Valakari was allowed to bring in a host of new signings, he adopted a 4-4-2 narrow midfield in the recent league victory. It would not be a surprise to see a low block 5-4-1 at Hampden.

But back to Celtic. There are choices to be made in several positions. We’ve covered the left-back debate. There are also decisions on the right wing, centre forward, and centre back. Today’s piece shines a light on the latter.

Liam Scales made a welcome return to the side against Kilmarnock. He reminded us of his ball progression skills with 12 progressive runs and 20 pack passes – both easily the most on the day. Defensively, he was rarely tested as Kilmarnock lacked the usual muscular target-man.

Hitherto regular Auston Trusty was off enjoying the birth of a baby, and this may have been the reason for the switch, although Trusty had struggled on the McDiarmid Park cow patch along with many others. So, will he return or will Scales persist?

Rather than dive into every facet of play, I’m going to focus on two heavily aggregated attributes – defending and ball progression.