Celtic v Motherwell - Scottish Cup Final Preview

Celtic will be without Joe Ledley and Beram Kayal but Kris Commons returns from suspension and will almost certainly start after netting nine times in his previous nine appearances.  Motherwell have a full squad to choose from, meaning the only selection worries Stuart McCall has is who to leave out of his starting eleven.

Celtic

With the absence of Ledley and Kayal in the last few games, Neil Lennon has moved Scott Brown into the centre of midfield alongside Ki Sung-Yeung.  In order to add more industry to the midfield, Charlie Mulgrew has been moved from his makeshift central defensive position to a makeshift midfield role.  Mulgrew has been deployed on the left-side of midfield but in a more tucked in role, like that of Brown for much of the season only on the opposite side.  The knock-on effect has been to move Kris Commons over to the right, meaning that we are now seeing a mirror of the lopsided 4-4-2 that Lennon has preferred for much of the season.

With Mulgrew being moved into midfield, Glenn Loovens has found himself restored to the starting line-up recently.  The Dutchman will take his place in an otherwise familiar back four.  The only other decision for Lennon is who to select in attack.  Gary Hooper is a certain starter but he then has to choose between Anthony Stokes and Georgios Samaras to partner him. 

Samaras broke his duct of only being selected for Old Firm matches when he was selected to play against Motherwell at the weekend and managed to get on the scoresheet.  Hooper and Stokes have a great understanding and their link up has been excellent at times this season, although Stokes seems to have been overlooked when the bigger matches arise, including Celtic’s previous cup final appearance this season.

Motherwell

With the cup final in mind, Stuart McCall has chopped and changed, rested and experimented in recent weeks so his last few line-ups and formations will have no bearing on his selection for Saturday.

The Motherwell manager has a full squad to choose from and has let it be known this week that he has decided upon his starting eleven with the exception of one position.  This could possibly be related to what formation he is deciding to go with.  When he first took charge, McCall experimented with a number of formations but settled upon a 4-4-2 (which became a 4-2-3-1 in possession) when Motherwell hit their best run of form since he took charge.

Despite this, Motherwell’s 2-0 victory over Celtic in February saw McCall line up his side in a 4-5-1 formation, matching Celtic man-for-man in the middle of the park.  The formation also included two pacey wingers that were positioned high up the pitch, pressing against Celtic’s full-back, thus, nullifying the threat they posed.

For that reason, as well as the probability that McCall will want to keep it tight early on, I think that Francis Jeffers, who usually partners John Sutton in attack, will have to make do with a place on the bench to make way for an extra central midfielder.  This means that the main selection worry that McCall was alluding to was more likely whether to go with Steve Jones or Chris Humphrey on the right wing but more on this below.

Key Battles

Whether or not Motherwell start the match with a central midfield two or a central midfield three, this area will be one of the key areas of the field.  Celtic’s formation is such that they, in effect, have three central midfielders, meaning that Motherwell will find themselves overrun should they go with 4-4-2.  So assuming Motherwell start 4-5-1 then Hateley-Jennings-Lasley up against Brown-Ki-Mulgrew will be an intriguing contest.

Even if matched man-for-man in the centre of midfield, Celtic’s ace in the hole could be Kris Commons.  The Scotland international’s starting position is that of a winger although he likes to drift inside and occupy the space between the lines, no matter which side he starts on.  With the central midfield three of each side lining up man-form-man against each other, Commons may just be the man to find space and punish Motherwell.

The above means that Celtic’s midfield tends to be narrow but, as has been a feature of their play and a successful tactic for much of the season, they like to get their full-backs forward to provide width.  Mark Wilson and Emilio Izaguirre have both been dangerous when getting forward though, as mentioned earlier, the presence of two Motherwell wingers high up the pitch may cause them to think twice before their forays into the opposition half, therefore, making them less of a threat.

Which takes us back to McCall’s main selection problem: Jones or Humphrey?  Jones is tricky and has more of an end product, whereas Humphrey is, for the most part, pure pace.  Jones likes to cut inside when on the right wing, whereas for Humphrey it’s all about hugging the touchline, getting outside the full-back and hitting the byline.

All things considered, Humphrey may just be the better choice.  Izaguirre has shown a little bit of fragility to the defensive side of his game – most notably in the post-split fixtures versus Inverness and Motherwell – and Humphrey may not only cause the Honduran to stay back more often, he may possess the attributes to punish him more effectively.  The other option is to keep Humphrey for later on in the match and use him as an impact substitution when everyone else is tiring as the pace he possesses could be deadly at that point.  The trouble with this is that it gambles that the match will still be alive come the latter stages.

Whichever player McCall decides upon, it will be interesting to see whether he, along with Jamie Murphy on the other wing, can not only prevent the Celtic full-backs from moving up the pitch and get involved in attacks, but also punish them if they do decide to get forward.

Tactical shorts: Motherwell 0 Rangers 5

Rangers put pressure on Celtic, opening up a four point gap with a tremendous second half performance at Fir Park.  After constantly tinkering with his formation just after taking over, Stuart McCall now seems to have settled on a 4-4-2 with two wingers, two deep-lying midfielders and Francis Jeffers dropping off to link play.  In recent matches he has started with two inverted wingers in Jamie Murphy and Steve Jones which was the case again in this match.

Rangers lined up similarly, the major difference being the nature of their wingers which is explained below.  Walter Smith’s side dominated possession in the first half but didn’t trouble Darren Randolph other than for the goal.  In fact, it was Allan McGregor that was the busier of the two goalkeepers in the opening period.  After a disjointed start, Rangers opened the scoring through Kyle Lafferty then settled into a decent passing game which they upped to devastating effect in the second half.

Motherwell created a few decent chances without playing too well in the first half and struggled to create anything at all in the second.  They defended extremely poorly after half time, especially Stephen Craigen, who was pulled out of position for the second goal and caught under the ball for the third.

Wylde and Naismith

Whereas Gregg Wylde would stay wide and try to get around the outside of Motherwell right-back Maurice Ross, Steven Naismith would drift inside and look for space in between the lines.  This gave Rangers three men, and therefore a man advantage, in the centre of the pitch.  It had the added effect of allowing Steven Whittaker to get forward down the right and join in attacks.

During the second half, Naismith’s position became deeper and he spent a lot of time in and around the centre circle level with Maurice Edu, looking to collect the ball and start off attacks.  This is effectively where the large margin of victory came from as Rangers easily bypassed the Motherwell midfield time and time again and could have scored a few more than they did.

Both Naismith and Wylde were involved in the play leading up to the second and third goals, Wylde then set up Naismith for the fourth and Naismith added the fifth late on.

Davis and Edu

Steven Davis and Edu again made up the centre of midfield.  In the recent Old Firm match, Davis sat the deeper of the two and looked to dictate play.  In this match, the starting positions saw Edu sit deeper although he was the more inclined to drive forward off the ball.  He spent large portions of the first half around the edge of the box but rarely got involved in attacks and looked lost.

In the second half, Rangers attacked through central positions much more effectively and Davis was involved in much of this.  He made several bursting runs forward with the ball and should have added to his early second half goal.

Less than ten minutes into the second half, and just after Davis’s goal, Walter Smith had a word with Edu and from then on in the match, the US international sat the deeper of the two and allowed Davis to get forward more often as Rangers looked to score as many as possible and reduce the goal difference deficit between them and Celtic.

ESPN awarded Naismith the man of the match award, which was a justified choice, although in fairness it could just as easily gone to Davis.  They completely overran Steve Jennings and Keith Lasley and it was their side's dominance of this area of the pitch that ultimately won the game so convincingly for Rangers.

Motherwell 3 St. Johnstone 0

Motherwell booked their place in the Scottish Cup final with a comfortable 3-0 win over St. Johnstone at Hampden Park. Despite the three goal margin, Stuart McCall’s side didn’t have to perform to the best of their capabilities to see off their opponents.  All three goals were avoidable and included two goalkeeping errors from Peter Enckleman, who we know is no stranger to a blunder or two.

Teams and formations

St. Johnstone welcomed Jody Morris back into the centre of midfield with Chris Millar missing through injury.  They lined up 4-1-4-1 with Morris patrolling the area just in front of the defence and Colin Samuel leading the line.  St. Johnstone’s midfield was quite narrow considering there was five of them, with Liam Craig and Danny Invincible more inclined to drift inside than stay out wide.

Motherwell started in a 4-4-2 formation that often looked like a 4-2-3-1 when Chris Humphrey and Jamie Murphy pushed on and either Francis Jeffers or John Sutton dropped deep.  Keith Lasley and Steve Jennings sat deep for the most part, allowing the wingers to play higher up the pitch, and dominated despite a man disadvantage in that area.  At times the numerical advantage was negated by one of the strikers, usually Jeffers, dropping deep to keep tabs on Morris.  The other alternative would have been for either Lasley or Jennings to come and meet him, which consequently would have left space for Kevin Moon or Murray Davidson to exploit, but they resisted this and remained disciplined.

Motherwell gifted two goals early on

For the first few minutes it looked as if St. Johnstone were going to take the game to their opponents.  They almost opened the scoring through an Invincible header after a Danny Grainger free kick but their bright start was undone after only five minutes when Enckleman came for a Tom Hateley corner and completely missed the ball, allowing Stephen Craigen to nod the ball home from a standing position.  The finger can also be pointed at Invincible who was caught ball-watching and left the Northern Ireland international unmarked.

The match was over as a contest when Murphy put Motherwell 2-0 up after fourteen minutes.  It was a well taken goal from the 21-year-old but the goal, again, could have been avoided.  After a lucky break following a poor Craigen pass, Motherwell bypassed the St. Johnstone midfield all too easily.  Sutton then dropped deep and fed Murphy, who cut inside with a diagonal run.  Michael Duberry looked to have Murphy in his sights but was impeded by fellow centre-half Steven Anderson before Murphy finished well from the edge of the box.

Two shots for Motherwell = two goals.  All without having to massively outplay their opponents.  Game over.

St. Johnstone offer nothing going forward

Predictably, Motherwell then became more inclined to sit deep, allow St. Johnstone possession and hit on the counter attack.  Morris was now seeing plenty of the ball although there were several occasions where he was visibly frustrated by the lack of options in front of him.  You could see that after waiting for some movement in order to pass the ball forward, he would turn and play a sideways or backwards pass before shrugging his shoulders or stretching his arms out in a ‘what am I supposed to do’ manner.

Samuel looked isolated up front but to be fair he never really offered his teammates any option.  He looked sluggish and rarely got into space.  The few times he did drop deep or wide, the midfielders very rarely attempted to get beyond him.  All St. Johnstone’s first half chances came from set-pieces.

Another goalkeeping error made it 3-0 going into half time.  A long punt up-field from Darren Randolph was nodded down by Jeffers and hit by Sutton on the volley from around twenty-five yards.  Enckleman’s positioning was so poor that he struggled to get across his goal and could only get a hand to it on its way into the net. 

A mostly uneventful Second half

After the third goal St. Johnstone moved Invincible up front and Moon to right midfield, switching to 4-4-2.  At half time Samuel was replaced by Jordan Robertson, who done more for his side after ten minutes on the pitch than Samuel had managed in forty-five, and stuck with the formation they had ended the first half with.

With two target men in attack, St. Johnstone were now more inclined to hit long balls but after a while their play settled and they enjoyed long periods of possession but again without creating much.  Keith Lasley admitted post-match that Motherwell were happy to spend the second half focusing on not conceding a goal rather than adding to their tally.

A few substitutions for either side failed to change the outcome of the match or add to the scoring.  St. Johnstone managed to string together a few decent passing moves with Davidson the main driving force.  The same player struck the bar with a header late on but it was too little too late from a side who had gifted the win to their opponents very early on in the match.

Conclusion

After the match, Stuart McCall conceded that his side were “2-0 up without turning up”.  This is a pretty accurate assessment, even if ‘without turning up’ is a little bit of an exaggeration.  St. Johnstone, and Enckleman especially, gifted Motherwell their goals, making the win much more comfortable than it perhaps should have been.

Starting with a extra man in the centre of midfield should have caused St. Johnstone to dominate that area, but three factors – (i) Jeffers and Sutton taking turns to drop deep and pick up Morris, (ii) the fact that Jennings and Lasley were better on the day, and (iii) that the more attacking Motherwell players offered their midfielders more options – meant that Lasley and Jennings dominated. 

The second half was little more than Motherwell sitting back and protecting their lead and St. Johnstone huffing and puffing but to no avail.