Rangers’ Bodo/Glimt lessons to defeat Celtic: Triggering the press, Bealeball and outplaying at full-back

In the 25 games they’ve played since a defeat to Livingston last September, they’ve won 21 times and drawn on four occasions. In the same sample size, Rangers have drawn six times and lost once, meaning the advantage they’d established during the early weeks of the season has been overturned.

Ange Postecoglou has recruited successfully and introduced a style of football that returns plenty of goals; which is more than half the battle when facing block after block in the league.

Equally, their European campaign hasn’t been quite as successful as their rivals across the city and culminated in a 5-1 aggregate exit at the hands of Bodo/Glimt. For the obvious strengths that Celtic demonstrated in their recent 3-0 Old Firm victory, a double-header against the Norwegian side exposed exploitable flaws.

Ahead of Sunday’s Old Firm, the Rangers Review explains how Bodo managed to get the better of Celtic over two ties.

Orient the ball, not the man 

Celtic play high-energy football which, while not without its risks, has predominantly returned rewards in recent months. They line up in a 4-3-3, with fluid movement and rotations down either flank, intense pressure off the ball, high and wide wingers to stretch the pitch and full-backs who invert to enable an attacking midfield.

READ MORE: Rangers roadmap to beat Celtic: Why rival's weaknesses are exploitable 

In both ties, the Norwegians made the pitch small when their opponents had the ball and stretched the pitch when in possession themselves. If you recognise that phrase, it was synonymous with the ‘in and out of possession principles’ Michael Beale and Steven Gerrard established at Rangers; to own the ball in possession and own the pitch out of it.

The two frames below, early into either tie, show Bodo in a compact block. They’re not parking the bus or simply playing for a clean sheet, but rather attempting to dictate the areas Celtic can play in and condense space around the ball.

This is called a ball-orientated approach. Bodo prioritise numbers around the ball instead of a man-orientated approach when a team defends man-for-man and seeks to win individual battles.

In the February Old Firm defeat, Rangers utilised a man-orientated approach and at the mercy of Celtic’s fluidity, constantly left space that could be exploited. There was no sense of the collective solidity demonstrated by Bodo.

The first lesson Giovanni van Bronckhorst can learn from the encounter is to focus pressure on the ball, not on individuals. A man-marking approach creates the perfect environment for Celtic’s quick interchanges to cut through open space.

Given the core of this team was steeped in the success of Steven Gerrard’s compact shape, pictured below, that provided the platform for European success and a record-breaking defensive season in 2020/21, the foundations are in place to model Bodo’s approach.

Adapt the cover-shadow plan

Two goals over the fixture originated from this narrow and compact set-up, springing into quick central transitions.

Rangers tried to do this at Parkhead with Ryan Kent and Amad appearing to stay high when Celtic’s centre-backs had the ball. Presumably this was to remain ahead of the ball and the inverted full-backs when Rangers won possession.

The problem was, as discussed above, a man-marking approach across the pitch left the defence constantly overwhelmed and undermined this tactic.

By remaining compact and moving with the ball, Bodo kept their attackers in high areas. Again, it goes back to a Gerrard and Beale principle, who wanted their two No.10s in “interesting areas”, not inhibited by the responsibility of tracking a full-back.

Bodo achieved this by using a similar approach to Rangers’ European template. Here, Stephen Welsh’s short pass into Nir Bitton, and the high positioning of both inverted full-backs, presents the attackers with an opportunity to quickly regain the ball and exploit space.

In Glasgow, central congestion resulted in another goal after Reo Hatate surrendered possession cheaply, the Norwegian champions attacked the centre quickly and scored after pulling Callum McGregor out of position.

Space will be forthcoming at the weekend and, as they did so successfully against Borussia Dortmund, Rangers can cause carnage with Alfredo Morelos and Kent in these scenarios.

Playing through the press 

Aside from two quick transitions, Bodo scored three goals by triggering the Celtic press, finding a route beyond the first line of pressure and exploiting the space vacated in defence and midfield.

By using their goalkeeper in possession, particularly at Celtic Park, Bodo were able to coax Celtic in, use left-back Brice Wembangono as an avenue through the first line of pressure and then clinically exploit the space an aggressive press had left uninhabited.

The goalkeeper, Nikita Haikin, completed 92 percent of his passes in the first leg and his role in possession was key. Here, he forms a back three with his two centre-backs to attract pressure before playing wide to Wembangono.

Liel Abada runs aggressively at Wembangono as he receives the ball, however, the left-back is a skilled one-v-one operator and, as he did throughout both ties, skips past his marker.

This is what Bodo did brilliantly throughout, taking the risk of playing through Celtic’s press. Now, Postecoglou’s side are on the back foot with five players ahead of the ball. 

As play moves left, notice the space on the right where Bodo will eventually open the scoring from. Celtic are outnumbered having pressed with such aggression from the front and now leave themselves exposed as Amahl Pellegrino seeks out Hugo Vetlesen. Neat combination play from the visitors while three vs two culminates in Runar Espejord finishing beyond Joe Hart.

To make it 2-0 on the night, the Norwegian side again triggered the press and found the spare man before transitioning quickly against a retreating and recovering defence.

How do we know they were waiting for pressure to play? Here, Wembangono receives a pass with plenty of space ahead of him. It’s clear from the number of times he skipped past Abada that the 25-year-old is confident when dribbling at an opponent, however rather than attack his man he circulates possession.

As the ball moves across the pitch, Daizen Maeda presses to block off a pass across the defence. Bodo now attempt to move forwards with Celtic pressing to regain the ball.

Elias Hagen finds Vetlesen and the home side have again had five players quickly taken out of proceedings by one press-breaking moment, showing why Bodo based their attacks around these moments.

Just like the opener, the eventual goal is brilliantly finished. However, from a Celtic perspective, it was far too easy for Bodo to gain entry into the final third against an exposed defence.

Throughout, Wembangono’s one-v-one ability offered a route beyond pressure. Being a right-footer playing on the left, he could change the angle of attacks by cutting infield, as opposed to a conventional full-back who may only be comfortable playing down the line.

READ MORE: How Rangers can model B team's Old Firm pressing approach to 'guide and manipulate' Celtic's system

Playing out from the back is a risky ploy, however, if executed properly it can, as shown, create high-quality chances. James Tavernier possesses the attributes to model the ‘outplaying’ of Wembangono; but whether his side can take this risk with Allan McGregor in goals, given he endured such a difficult night on the ball in the previous Old Firm, remains to be seen.

Nonetheless, the third lesson van Bronckhorst must adopt ahead of Sunday is the vitality of manipulating Celtic’s press to create offensive opportunities.

Addressing the wide overloads and rotations

Finally, how did Bodo generally limit Celtic’s attack?

At Parkhead, Rangers were constantly defending situations at a man disadvantage with Kent and Amad playing ahead of the full-backs as discussed above.

Bodo also, like Rangers, used their wingers to try and manipulate where Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt could play passes. The difference was two-fold; a compact set-up required a shorter recovery distance if Celtic did create an overload and by marking the space instead of the man, Bodo weren’t pulled apart by rotations.

Here, Anthony Ralston rotates inside to open up the space. Welsh needs to pass into the feet of James Forrest, however, Pellegrino’s positioning makes this a risk. If Welsh loses the ball in this position his side could concede the ball in a dangerous area.

Instead, he finds Ralston inside the pitch, who in turn quickly distributes the ball wide. However, because Bodo have remained consolidated instead of tracking runs, they can quickly shut down the winger.

Because van Bronckhorst’s side were not compact at Parkhead, this scenario played out very differently. Often Josip Juranovic rotated inside to leave Borna Barisis in a two-v-one, with Kent unable to recover the large distance he was asked to make up.

This clever rotation Celtic use is difficult to counteract. Teams aren’t accustomed to underlaps and as Rangers have shown themselves subtlety in the past few months,  the run can produce effective attacks.

Nonetheless, they are not unstoppable and the final lesson Rangers can learn from Bodo is to decrease the distances and limit the effectiveness of rotations.

The Sunday solution

Let’s recap the four defining principles of Bodo’s 5-1 win over Celtic.

1. A ball-orientated approach rather than a man-orientated approach.

2. Quick central transitions enabled by a compact shape.

3. Triggering the Celtic press before attacking quickly through pressure.

4. Stunting the wide overloads and rotations by decreasing the distances.

Sunday is a must-win encounter for the current Scottish champions, with another Old Firm fixture before the end of the season taking place away from home, and a three-point deficit to make up.

If there’s one thing van Bronckhorst has shown himself to be during his time in the dugout at Ibrox it is a tactical pragmatist, happy to mould his team’s approach to the opposition and not a manager wedded to his principles like Postecoglou.

Supporters will be hopeful the lessons the Dutchman learns from this game and his side's previous defeat will translate into a match-winning game plan.