TC Tactics A-Z

Centre of the park is still a huge issue for me. What was Brown’s role today? Midfield are posted missing when the centre backs have the call. No one going and demanding it!

We need a proper CDM who would give McGregor the licence to play with a bit more freedom.

 

As per post above, 4-3-3 could be a more creative formation for us to utilise going forward.

Line up could look something like this;

Barkas

Frimpong
Duffy
Ajer/Jullien
Laxalt

McGregor
Christie
Turnbull

Forrest
Ajeti/Griffiths
Edouard

It’s definitely a more attacking team and one that would pose problems for every domestic club. The Huns have the edge over us because we haven’t been able to impose ourselves in recent derby games. With this line up, there is threat all over the park and can be tweaked easily.

You could swap Elhamed for Frimpong if you wanted to be slightly more conservative without removing threat completely.

Elyounoussi and Johnston could be good back up options for the winger positions.

 

3-5-2 is fine when we have the personnel to play it. (yesterday wasn't it)

Barkas
Elhamed Duffy/Jullien Ajer
Frimpong McGregor Christie Laxalt
Turnbull
Ajeti Edouard
​

 

When we struggle to create or score, moving christie further back makes absolutely no sense for me. He has always been an attacking player. Its the reason we bought him.

 

What I could see from slippy tactics Kent was swapping wings every 10 mins and the two backs pushed up way by the half way line and were given too much space our wingbacks failed there.
But what I was scratching my head at when the ball was out in the wing the zombie player passed it along the penalty box and Goldson a * centre half was standing there to score .

 

.............................barkas........................
Frimpong........jullien.......ajer........laxalt
..................mcgregor.....turnbull............
..............................christie.....................
.....forrest............ajeti...............eddie....


.............................bain...........................
El-ham.........duffy........bitton.......taylor
...................brown.........ntcham............
..............................rogic.........................
....johnson...........griff.................moi....

Soro, paddy the pole and connell miss out in the two teams

 

3-5-2 is the right way to play against Scottish teams that sit in on tight (sometimes plastic) pitches when it's not conducive to fast, free-floating football but it shouldn't be our formation for all opponents.

It has flaws that can be exploited by good tacticians, which is why it's an uncommon formation.

When the WBs have committed forward it leaves massive gaps down the line to be exploited, pulling CMs and CBs out wide to cover and leaving big gaps elsewhere to be exploited.

4-2-3-1 gives us the best balance IMO for our personnel.

 

This.

"Play football the Glasgow Celtic way"

Ehm... awkward

 

Stewart on sportscene gave a excellent tactic talk saying the Celtic players don't know what they are trying to do tactic wise and failed to exploit the wings and saying the zombie players didn't use the hard press as they wanted to draw out the wingbacks to exploit the space at the Celtic defence .
Also saying that's three games Lennon has failed to come up with tactics to combat slippys formation .

 

You need your back 3 to be dynamic and take up intelligent positions with or without the ball. We have 4 good ST, I really want to see Edouard and Ajeti as front two. 3-5-2 domestically and maybe something different v The Huns and in Europe.

 

McGregor post match pretty much confirmed they're caught between what to do..

 

We had the ridiculous situation yesterday with moh standing next to goldson and there must have been a foot in height difference and that's at the first goal .

 

I think it's become really stale for us.

If Edouard was focused on performing for us then it could work with Ajeti but that's a huge if.

It also means Forrest doesn't play as he doesn't suit the RWB role. Same with Moi unless we play him in the 10 role.

I think we should have it as part of our potential formations against stubborn opponents but not as our go to. Not based on our personnel at the moment.

We're going whole games creating basically nothing. It needs binned and a rethink.

 

A major problem is that most of our midfielders lack distinct roles (which is unsurprising, as we have no obvious system in place). Where they do have clearly defined roles, they are incapable of performing them effectively.

Brown is no longer a viable option in the holding role: opposition players bypass him too easily these days. It is difficult to tell whether or not Connell and Soro can provide the defensive cover that we need because we have seen so little of them.

McGregor is the complete midfielder. He was outstanding in the regista role under Rodgers, but now he is, apparently, responsible for picking up the slack for others, which limits his influence.

What does Ntcham do? He is comfortable in possession (sometimes), but he contributes little else in defence or attack. He can play sublime defence-splitting passes, but how often do we see them? He has 13 assists in 137 appearances for Celtic. That is a dismal return for a player of his talent. He might be useful against better opposition, when we need to retain possession, but, domestically, he is a passenger.

We have no alternatives to Christie and Rogić - and Christie is no alternative to Rogić, for the record. We badly miss them when they are unavailable.

Turnbull might be able to stand in for Christie, at least in terms of providing a goal threat. I have seen too little of him to know whether or not he brings the kind of energy that Christie does. It is academic, in any case, if he never plays.

The best football that we have played in recent times unsurprisingly came with Christie, McGregor, and Rogić in the middle of the park. Each of them knew their role, and performed it effectively.

 

He's not really played a basic 3-5-2 much at all this season tho, it's been a 3-4-2-1..

Swap in Edouard, Christie and Ajeti and it can definitely work.

 

Édouard hasn't kicked a ball for us in weeks and the manager has publicly said he's not been focused.

Christie for all his goals and assists chose the week of a massive game to put out in the public domain that he's in no hurry to sign a contract extension, very peculiar timing.

Ajeti I think has the ability to be a very good player for us but I think he's going to be reliant on service into the box to do damage, similar to Dembele in 2016/17.

4-2-3-1 with Ely and Forrest (when fit) supplying on the wings with Frimpong and Laxalt overlapping, Christie or Turnbull in the 10 and McGregor doing the box to box stuff.

I think we'd be a far more effective unit playing something along those lines.

We've reached such a critical point that we can only play guys that we know are up for the fight. Until Eddie has shown his head is in the game then I wouldn't consider him for the time-being.

Ntcham has ran out of chances for me.

It's then down to Lennon to get the rest fighting for him but at present they aren't looking like a team that's playing for him and fully invested in his ideas.

 

He lacks the guile that we require from a number ten. We need someone who can find pockets of space between the lines, and unpick packed defences: Rogić is ideal when he is available.

Christie's biggest strengths are his engine, and eye for goal. He is better suited to playing as a number eight, in my opinion.