SPL Team of the Season

An SPL campaign in which the actual football rarely hogged the headlines saw a departing Walter Smith lead his threadbare Rangers side to the title.  The eleven players below are predictably dominated by Old Firm players who once again were streets ahead of their rivals.  You may wonder, given the eventual champions, why there are five representatives from Celtic and only three from Rangers.  The answer is that Celtic played the better football throughout the course of the season.  Rangers ground out results a bit more, apart from towards the end of the season when they pretty much blew everyone away, and their play was overall more reactive than Celtic’s, although not exclusively so.

Before proceeding I should mention a few players that were unlucky to miss out.  There were two positions that were extremely difficult to decide upon – goalkeeper and striker.  Allan McGregor could just as easily been selected instead of Marian Kello.  His penalty save in the final Old Firm match of the season was a major factor in Rangers winning the title and he also saved his side on a number of other occasions.  Despite this, I have opted for Kello for the reasons given below.  The other player that was very difficult to leave out was Gary Hooper.  Nineteen league goals in twenty-five league matches is a fantastic return for his first season in the SPL, however, I feel that Nikica Jelavic’s overall contribution trumps that of Hooper, more on this below.

Some may also be disappointed not to see any Dundee United players represented.  They had a tremendous second half to the season after the return of Craig Conway and Danny Swanson from injury.  Although highly influential, these two did not quite perform consistently enough to warrant a place and the other candidates – David Goodwillie and the central midfield three – are worth a mention but unfortunately cannot be included at the expense of any of those selected.

Marian Kello, Heart of Midlothian

To keep Allan McGregor out of the side you must have had a tremendous season and that has certainly been the case for Marian Kello.  The Slovakian goalkeeper has faced up to three penalty saves this season and saved them all, including one in the 93^rd minute of a match that ensured a 2-1 victory over Dundee United – an absolutely vital three points for Hearts in the end given th eventual difference in points between the two sides.

His stand-out performances include the 0-0 draw at Pittodrie as well as the 1-0 victory at home to Rangers, a match which saw him awarded the Clydesdale Bank SPL save of the season award for one of his many stops that day.

Mark Wilson and Emilio Izaguirre, Celtic

Emilio Izaguirre was awarded both the SPL and the PFA player of the year awards this season and it is a given that the Honduran World Cup star finds his place in the best XI of the season.  His attacking prowess from left-back has seen him take up the position of a winger for large parts of matches and his delivery into the box is always dangerous.  He has been exposed defensively on a few occasions, including in the defeat that cost Celtic the title, however this should not detract from the high level of performance he has given throughout the season.

On the opposite side, Mark Wilson has finally managed a season of being relatively injury free and shown himself to be one of his side’s top performers.  There was a period in the season when he would also get forward at every opportunity but has become more and more reserved in his positioning as the season has drawn to a close.  Wilson is defensively solid, filled in at central defence for a short spell this season and has found himself a member of the most recent Scotland squads.

Marius Zaliukas, Heart of Midlothian

When his manager has been allowed to select him, Zaliukas has been vital to the defensive solidity Hearts have shown at times this season.  The Lithuanian international is prone to the odd horrific mistake but this aside he is one of the top central defenders in the country.

Zaliukas was frozen out at the start of the season due to a breakdown in contract negotiations and during that time Hearts struggled to keep clean sheets and, therefore, pick up points.  Hearts managed only one clean sheet in their opening seven matches without Zaliukas and it is no coincidence that they began a run of twelve wins in fourteen SPL matches, including eight clean sheets in nine matches, upon his return.

Charlie Mulgrew, Celtic

Bought under the pretence he could solve Celtic’s left-back problem, Mulgrew struggled in his early days at Parkhead and found himself out of favour before long, especially after the arrival of Izaguirre.  After multiple injuries in the centre of defence, Mulgrew found himself deployed as a makeshift centre-half and has since made the position his own.  The return of Majstorovic and other central defenders - Thomas Rogne and Glenn Loovens - from injury failed to oust Mulgrew and he must now be considered as a potential international in this position given the lack of quality Craig Levein has available there.

Finding himself at the heart of the defence with the best record in the SPL is an excellent achievement for Mulgrew and it will be interesting to see whether he remains in this position next season or whether Neil Lennon decides to strengthen and keep Mulgrew as back up.

Steven Davis, Rangers

Steven Davis may not have made the best start to the current SPL campaign but the Northern Ireland international has improved as the season has progressed and is another one of the reasons why Rangers finished as champions.  Davis, more often than not, formed a central midfield pairing with Maurice Edu who has a tendency to underperform and go hiding in matches.  Despite this, Davis has controlled and dictated the midfield area, be it coming deep to collect the ball from his defence, his tremendous range of passing, or through his driving runs from deep positions.  His dominance in matches is even more impressive when considered that he and Edu often faced up to a central midfield three yet did not find themselves overrun.

Beram Kayal, Celtic

Beram Kayal was almost everyone’s choice as the man unlucky to miss out on a player of the year nomination.  Some even touted him as the actual player of the year.  Bought for a modest sum of £1m, the Israeli, along with Izaguirre, shows just how effective the Celtic scouting system has been over the past year.

Kayal is the full package.  He takes up the position of a deep-lying or holding midfielder, he is tenacious in the tackle, presses his opponents hard and can also dictate play.  He usually keeps it simple, playing sideways passes but can also hit a killer pass when the opportunity arises.

Alexei Eremenko, Kilmarnock

The signing of the season.  Mixu Paatelainen took over a side that avoided relegation on the final day of last season and immediately used his contacts to seek out some reinforcements.  His fellow countryman Alexei Eremenko was signed on loan from Ukrainian side Metalist Kharkiv and deployed in the ‘number 10’ role, a position few in Scotland posses the attributes to play effectively.

Even though he didn’t score many goals during the course of the season, it was his link up play and the assists he provided where he was most valuable.  Flicks, tricks and always at the heart of Kilmarnock’s good passing moves, he has been a joy to watch and it is a shame that he won’t be around for us to enjoy again next season.

Steven Naismith, Rangers

I have to say that out of all the nominees for the PFA player of the year I found the inclusion of Steven Naismith the most surprising.  Up to that point he had had a great season, however, it seemed that at no point up until then had he even been the best player in the Rangers side.

Since then it is like he has been out to prove all his doubters, or maybe just me, wrong.  Another player who struggled with injury for spells during the season, his return saw him fielded in a few different roles until Walter Smith settled him into a right-midfield/right-wing role.  During matches, Naismith likes to drift inside, playing just behind the striker(s), allowing right-back Steven Whittaker space to overlap and providing Rangers with an extra man in central areas.

Naismith has scored ten goals this season, the most notable of which was this spectacular effort in the recent hammering of Motherwell.

Kris Commons, Celtic

Even though Kris Commons only signed for Celtic in January, it is difficult to look past him for a place in the team of the season.  The English-born Scotland international almost signed for Rangers and up until a few weeks ago, looked as though he might be the difference between which side won the league.

Commons opened up his scoring account for Celtic minutes into his debut and has managed eleven league goals, fourteen in all competitions since, some stunning goals at that (check this one out too).  He has scored nine goals in his last nine matches.  All very impressive for a winger.

Deployed as a wide player, at least in terms of his starting position, like Naismith, Commons has a tendency to drift inside and allow the full-back, in this case Izaguirre, to overlap.  He is usually deployed on the left of Lennon’s lopsided midfield four, which, along with its many variations, has probably been the most interesting tactical feature of the season.

Nikica Jelavic, Rangers

As mentioned in the intro, this was a very difficult position to decide.  It could just as easily have been given to Gary Hooper and that is not even to mention the likes of David Goodwillie of Dundee United and Conor Sammon, formerly of Kilmarnock.

But Nikica Jelavic it is.  The Croatian international has shown himself to be a more complete player than Hooper, evidenced in his ability to play either up front on his own or else as part of a front two - towards the end of the season he has formed a devastating partnership with Kyle Lafferty.  His ability to come deep and link play is better than any other in the league and his goalscoring ability, with his feet and in the air, is again unmatched in the SPL.  He was awarded goal of the season for his expertly taken overhead kick against Aberdeen.  What made this goal even better is that it came in a 1-0 victory and not when his side were already cruising to victory.

Jelavic suffered from a bad injury towards the start of the season and has grown stronger and stronger as the season has progressed.  We can only wonder what his goal and assist tally would be had he been fully fit for the entire season.

SPL Young Team of the Season

Here's my (undescribed) SPL young team of the season also.  Honourble mentions go to Johnny Russell of Dundee United and Gregg Wylde of Rangers who both narrowly missed out.

Rangers 0 Celtic 0

Following all the off-field nonsense this past week or so, a football match took place.  In it, a fantastic performance from Allan McGregor in the Rangers goal, capped by an eighty-third minute penalty save, ensured that Rangers took a point.  Nonetheless it is Celtic who will be the happier of the two sides as it means that winning the SPL title is now firmly in their own hands.

Given the significance of the match, it was a predictably cagey affair with both sides set up not to concede.  Both sides set up as 4-4-2, although their respective deployments were slightly different, especially in midfield.  Neil Lennon opted for Joe Ledley ahead of Kris Commons and Ki Sung-Yeung in favour of James Forrest, admitting beforehand that this was designed to make the midfield more robust.  They started with a narrow and mostly deep-lying midfield four.  Ledley was the most likely to get forward from midfield and tended to drift out wide left.  As is customary in Old Firm matches, Georgios Samaras made a rare start at the expense of top scorer Antony Stokes.

Walter Smith, in what was his final Old Firm derby, made one change from the 4-0 defeat of Dundee United in midweek, dropping Kyle Hutton in favour of Greg Wylde.  The Rangers midfield included Steven Davis and Maurice Edu in the centre, who sat relatively deep, and two wingers in Wylde and Steven Naismith, although the two of them rarely got beyond Emilio Izaguirre or Mark Wilson.  The other main difference between the two line ups were at full-back.  Whereas Celtic’s were expected to get forward, whether they were successful or not in doing this, the Rangers full-backs opted to stay back and allow those in front of them to do the attacking.

Rangers direct while Celtic focus on keeping possession

Rangers had the better of the opening exchanges with Kyle Lafferty, playing as a second striker just off Nikica Jelavic, looking lively.  After around ten minutes, when the match settled and Celtic began to keep possession, Rangers then opted to sit deep, hit Lafferty with long diagonals when they regained possession and feed off knock-downs.

It was a shame that Rangers resorted to this tactic.  Midway through the each half they exhibited their ability to put together quick passing moves that involved Jelavic.  The Croatian international has shown his capacity to link up and bring others into play in recent weeks but Rangers didn’t utilise this nearly enough during the ninety minutes.

Celtic, on the other hand, were intent on keeping possession and forming triangles to pass around the Rangers midfield.  It seems that this is why Lennon opted for players like Ki, who is excellent at keeping possession and creating from deep, and Samaras, who provides a link between midfield and attack, when he is on form that is.  The trouble was that Samaras was poor throughout, even if his manager and captain described him as “brilliant” after the match.

Despite both sides having a spells of dominance, nothing clear cut was created in the first half.  Scott Brown had a decent effort that was wide of the target and Naismith fired wide from a tight angle shortly afterwards.

Second half

The start of the second half was more of the same, Celtic dominating possession and Rangers hitting long diagonal balls towards the forwards.  Rangers should have opened the scoring when Lafferty headed wide from a deep Wylde cross.

Celtic were forced into a change ten minutes into the second period when Ledley aggravated his previous hamstring injury.  Commons took to the field in his place and took up a role that was pretty much the opposite to Ledley: Starting in a wide position and drifting inside.  However, he failed to make much of an impact on proceedings.

Even though the Celtic full-backs got forward more often than they had in the first half, they didn’t get forward nearly as much as expected.  Wilson has been less of an attacking force in a few of Celtic’s recent matches but was prevented from getting forward due to the presence of Wylde and Lafferty, who spent a fair portion of the second half putting in a strong defensive shift.  On the opposite side it seemed that it was Izaguirre’s teammate, Samaras, who prevented him from getting anywhere near the byline.  The Greek striker spent the first half of the second period on the left, not involved in the play, which meant there was no space for Izaguirre to move into.

When Antony Stokes starts in attack with Gary Hooper, he tends to drift right rather than left and, with the nature of their midfield, tends to give them a narrow 4-3-3 shape with the full-backs bombing on.  In the second half today, however, Samaras’s position meant that Celtic didn’t get the best out of Izaguirre.

Maurice Edu struggled up against the Celtic midfield and the burden upon Davis was all too apparent.  Smith responded by bringing on John Fleck for Wylde, moving Lafferty to left-midfield and playing Fleck just ahead of Davis and Edu.  Fleck harassed and harried Ki and Beram Kayal into surrendering possession on a number of occasions and he was eventually moved further back alongside Davis when Edu was withdrawn for El-Hadji Diouf.

 

Lennon replaced Hooper, another player who struggled, with Stokes and the SPL’s second-top scorer should have been given the chance to add to his tally when Samaras selected to shoot rather than put him one-on-one with McGregor.  Stokes then won a dubious penalty but unfortunately for Celtic, Samaras capped a miserable afternoon for himself by failing to covert.  This is not to take anything away from the Rangers goalkeeper, who made an excellent save to add to his stunning stop from a Daniel Majstorovic header earlier on.

Conclusion

Not the best Old Firm match of the seven this season but a decent encounter in short spells.  Both sides had chances to win the match although Rangers failed to work Fraser Forster in the Celtic goal.  A better performance from Samaras may have seen Celtic take all three points, even discounting the fact that he failed to convert the penalty.  Celtic are now in the situation where if they win all five of their remaining matches they will be champions.  Rangers’ only hope now is that one or more from Dundee United, Inverness, Kilmarnock, Hearts and Motherwell can take points from Lennon’s side.

League Cup Final: Celtic 1 Rangers 2 AET

Rangers edged a hectic cup final to take the first silverware of the season.  The key to their victory was preventing Celtic from playing to their usual standard which, contrary to what many predicted, came from a good balance of attacking and defending along with some excellent pressing.

Kyle Bartley was ruled out because of an injury picked up against PSV on Thursday and Ricky Foster was cup-tied so Walter Smith brought in Steven Naismith and Nikica Jelavic and lined his side up 4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1, depending on whether in possession or not.  The switch from a five to a four-man defence was necessary due to the injury to Bartley, however, it could be argued that the more enterprising approach would have transpired regardless.

Celtic replaced Glenn Loovens with Thomas Rogne and Mark Wilson returned from suspension, as did Scott Brown, and they started ahead of Efrain Juarez and Ki Sung-Yeung.  Throughout the match they switched between their lopsided 4-4-2 and 4-2-2-2 but too many underperformances from too many players meant they failed to hit the same heights as they have done in recent months.

Rangers' more attacking approach

The opening stages were open and played at an incredible pace.  It is unclear whether Rangers’ more enterprising strategy was influenced by their second half performance on Thursday or because this was a cup final but either way they stopped Celtic’s key dangermen from playing to their usual level.

Celtic’s midfield began narrow with Brown and Kris Commons playing just ahead of Beram Kayal and Joe Ledley.   Usually the width is provided by Mark Wilson and Emilio Izaguirre but with Rangers playing with two advanced wide midfielders, the Celtic full-backs found themselves pinned back for much of the match.

When they did attempt to get forward, Rangers were quick to double up on them and they rarely found themselves in possession in areas where they could do damage.  Rangers’ defensive performance was based on their full-backs staying in position, rather than pushing on, and a fantastic first half performance from Maurice Edu who consistently broke up Celtic attacks and offered terrific protection to his defence.  He and Steven Davis both played relatively deep when in possession and the Northern Ireland international was able to start off a number of attacks.

As well as this, Rangers pressed higher than they have done in Old Firm matches this season and, even though he didn’t cause many problems with the ball, Naismith denied Kayal and Ledley the time on the ball they would have liked by playing in the area the two were operating in.

Rangers’ strategy while in possession was to play quick and direct passes, whether long towards Jelavic or else wide to Greg Wylde or Kyle Lafferty.

The opportunity for the opening goal came from a long punt up-field from Neil Alexander.  Joe Ledley failed to control Charlie Mulgrew’s defensive header and this allowed Davis to collect the ball and cut inside.  The Celtic defence dropped deeper and deeper as his run progressed and they allowed him slip the ball into the corner of the net.

Celtic responded quickly and were back on level terms within eight minutes.  All their attacks in the first half had come down the left-hand side, with Commons pulling wide more often than he has in recent matches and it was from this side that their equaliser came.  After taking a throw-in in an attacking area, Emilio Izaguirre received the ball back from Commons and created half a yard of space for himself before whipping in a cross that was flicked on by Georgios Samaras and headed into the net by Ledley.

Even though Rangers edged the first half, at least on the amount of chances created, Celtic’s passing was slicker when they did enjoy spells of possession and they arguably created the best chance when Brown headed wide unchallenged.

Second half – Celtic’s substitutes fail to inspire

Rangers switched to a 4-4-2 at the start of the second half with Lafferty joining Jelavic in attack and Naismith moving wide right.  They continued to get the ball wide but now had two tall strikers to aim for.  Even though Lafferty’s position was as a striker, he continued the crucial role that Naismith had effectively carried out in the first half, dropping deep and closing down Kayal and Ledley whenever they received the ball.

With sixty-five minutes played Celtic withdrew Brown for Ki, Commons moved over to the right and Ledley moved left.  Their midfield was now a bit flatter than it had been previously, however, the changes failed to give Celtic any advantage.  Ki can usually dictate, even when not afforded much space, but he failed to get on the ball a great deal.  Ledley and Commons were also both very quiet in the second half.

The final twenty-five minutes of the ninety were very stop-start and Rangers were forced to reshuffle their defence when Madjid Bougherra hobbled off injured.  Kyle Hutton replaced him with Edu moving to right-back and Steven Whittaker into central defence.  Despite their makeshift back four, Rangers continued to prevent Celtic from creating many opportunities.

Weiss introduction and Jelavic goal seals it in extra-time

Just before the ninety minutes expired, Vladimir Weiss took to the field in place of Lafferty and sat just off Jelavic as Rangers returned to the formation they started the match with.  The Slovakian’s pace was proving to be a handful for the tired legs of Celtic and he gave his side a valuable outlet during counter attacks as well as drawing a few fouls.  It is worth noting that Celtic turned to the tricky yet slow Paddy McCourt for some inspiration towards the end of the first period of extra time but he made little impact.

One of the more debateable fouls on Weiss led to the winning goal.  Weiss took the free kick quickly, sending Jelavic through as the Celtic defence reacted slowly, and the Croatian striker’s finish spun in off the post.

Not only did Weiss have a major influence on the match up to and for the winning goal, he was able to retain possession effectively afterwards which relieved the pressure on the Rangers’ defence.  The value of Weiss’s pace at such a time in the match was summed up when he outpaced the usually quick but tiring Izaguirre, which saw the Celtic full-back sent off for a professional foul. 

Conclusion 

Whether Celtic were unprepared for Rangers’ willingness to attack or whether they just were not good enough on the day to cope is unclear.  Either way Rangers edged a very competitive contest.  As was evidenced in their 2-0 defeat to Motherwell last month, the key to stopping Celtic is to prevent their full-backs from advancing.  Rangers fielded two attacking wide players throughout, who not only pinned them back by playing high up the pitch, but also tracked back and denied them possession in dangerous areas.

One other key factor to the Rangers victory was the emergence of Weiss from the bench.  He provided the assist for the goal but, more than this, he also had pace and directness when running with the ball that turned the game Rangers’ way when the game became stretched.

Celtic weren’t terrible but too many players underperformed.  Commons, Hooper, Kayal, Ledley and Brown were all quieter than usual whereas their Rangers counterparts won their individual battles and contributed to a deserved cup win.