Before Sunday’s Old Firm derby, much of the spotlight fell on Celtic. They had a new manager in Ange Postecoglou. He had brought a new style of play, and had signed five new players, for roughly £17 million combined, all of whom made the starting line-up. But for all that change, this was a derby punctuated by old narratives. One of which was Rangers coming out on top.
The tactical themes underlying the 1-0 win were all very familiar. Rangers dictated the game for the most part with their pressing. This limited Celtic offensively, and saw them attempt their fewest shots in a derby since last October’s clash at Parkhead.
Then, once they had nullified their visitors and taken full control in the second half, Steven Gerrard’s men went and won the game with a header from a set-piece, an area of weakness in Celtic that Rangers have now exploited in four of the last six Old Firm games.
Gerrard tweaked his team’s defensive formation on Sunday. It was a subtle decision that proved pivotal to the flow of the game. Moving away from the flat 4-3-3, he went with a 4-3-1-2 that saw Ryan Kent playing behind Alfredo Morelos and Kemar Roofe. It’s a shape Rangers used to good effect in the 4-1 win over Celtic in May.
The ‘1-2’ element of the 4-3-1-2 created natural match-ups. Kent was usually the ‘1’, and marked Callum McGregor, Celtic’s base midfielder, while Morelos and Roofe pressured centre-backs Carl Starfelt and Stephen Welsh. This made it difficult for Celtic to build possession from the back through McGregor, forcing them into a long ball game they are quite deliberately not designed to play.
Shape
In the next few sequences, we will look at example after example of how Rangers pressed to nullify Celtic’s short passing game.
We start in the 17th minute. Celtic have passed backwards to Joe Hart. Morelos and Kent step up to press Celtic’s centre-backs. Roofe has temporarily swapped roles with Kent, and marks McGregor. Hart has to play long, and he kicks the ball out of play in his own half for a Rangers throw-in.
We go now to the 24th minute. With McGregor marked by Roofe, Welsh decides to run the ball forward himself. Morelos and Kent press backwards, force Welsh into a poor touch, and Steven Davis is on hand to mop up the loose ball.
This was the story for most of the game.
Here we see Celtic experiencing the same problems early in the second half. Morelos and Roofe have cut off the centre-backs and Kent is breathing down McGregor’s neck, so Hart has to play long. Rangers win the header and establish possession in midfield.
The same thing happens in the 55th minute. This time Celtic try to play short, but Starfelt and Hart come under pressure and, in the end, a panicked long ball is played which Rangers win to secure possession once again.
Two minutes later, and it’s officially Groundhog Day. Hart’s short options aren’t on because Morelos, Roofe and Kent are covering them. The Celtic goalkeeper is forced long, a small game of pinball ensues, and Rangers win out in the 1v1 battles to regain possession.
The share of Celtic passes that went long was significantly higher than it had been in any other Premiership game this season. According to Wyscout, 6.8% of the passes they played were long balls. Before Sunday, their highest long pass share was 3.7%, which came away to Hearts.
Rangers’ pressing forced Celtic to pass more directly than they like to, and played into the physical and aerial advantages (Balogun v Furuhashi, Barisic v Abada, Goldson and Helander v Edouard, Aribo v Turnbull) they had in most defensive areas.
Even when Celtic managed to play out along the ground, it usually went wide, where Rangers could shift across as a unit and defend using the touchline as an ‘extra man’. Sometimes, the pressure led to mistakes, with inaccurate passes in midfield by Josip Juranovic and Ryan Christie leading to Rangers counter-attacks.
Gerrard’s choice of defensive formation left space out wide for Celtic’s full-backs. This isn’t anything new – many opponents have enjoyed this sort of space in these sort of positions against the narrow shape Rangers use. But Rangers would rather Juranovic and Anthony Ralston have the ball than McGregor, Turnbull or Christie.
Sometimes, Ralston was able to use his space to create a chain reaction. He ran, drew out Glen Kamara, and found Christie in the vacated space behind Rangers’ Finnish international. However, for the most part, this dynamic was cancelled out by Filip Helander leaving his defensive line to close down Christie.
Helander
Not much happened for Celtic on the other flank, primarily because they had no natural left-footers to attack space on the outside and create a dilemma for Balogun, standing in for James Tavernier and Nathan Patterson at right-back. Juranovic is right-footed, and rarely overlapped Furuhashi, who is also right-footed.
Furuhashi, for all his good form prior to the game, got zero change cutting inside. Balogun, a natural centre-back, didn’t offer the same attacking threat that Tavernier or Patterson can, but here he put in an imperious defensive performance. Anticipation, headers and tackles won, blocks and interceptions – the 33-year-old did it all and was one of Rangers’ best players on the day.
It was a tight game, with both teams threatening mostly on the counter-attack, but Rangers slowly upped the ante and gained control thanks to their pressing strategy. They just needed a bit more quality in the final third. Ultimately, they got what they needed from a scenario that must now be approaching tradition.
Last October, Rangers beat Celtic 2-0, with both goals coming from Connor Goldson. One was a header from a free-kick, the other a tap-in during the second phase after Celtic failed to clear a corner. In January, Rangers beat Celtic 1-0 after Callum McGregor put the ball in his own net from a corner. Then, in March, Rangers drew 1-1 with Celtic thanks to a Morelos header from a corner. This time it was Helander’s turn.
The big Swede towered over his compatriot, Starfelt, to head home from a Barisic corner in the 66th minute. Once again, Rangers got a decisive goal against their rivals from a set-piece. It was a just reward after a solid pressing performance, underpinned by a subtle, but effective, tactical decision by Gerrard.
Fine margins, sure. But this wasn’t luck. Effective pressure coupled with set-piece dominance is fast becoming Rangers’ go-to game-plan for derby matches. It’s worked before, and on Sunday, against a very different and expensively-assembled Celtic team, it worked yet again.
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