Labour MSP Trish Godman rightfully described last night's events inside Tynecastle, in which a supporter attempted to attack Neil Lennon, as "disgusting". However, her comment that "security at Hearts should be looked in to" are slightly wide of the mark.
It is possible that a similar incident can or could have happened at any football ground in the country. In fact, three and a half years ago, a similar incident did take place at Celtic Park during a Champions League match when a supporter entered the field of play to taunt (I am loathe to use the word 'attack') AC Milan goalkeeper Dida.
Stepping up the security around the dugouts, or at least around the dugouts that Neil Lennon frequents, would be a smart move but other than that there does not seem to be any foolproof way of preventing people entering the field of play and surrounding areas during a football match. More bodies, sheer numbers would be a costly solution and would only minimise, not eradicate, the potential of something similar happening in the future.
Many newspapers and rolling news channels have gone with this as their top story this morning. Not only has this idiot that attempted to attack Lennon cost his club financially - money that would have been invested in youth or else used to service debt - he has tarnished the image of the club and, as Hearts fans know, this has been a problem their club has faced for a number of years now.
I was ashamed to wake up a Hearts supporter this morning.
Lennon's comments about other teams' lack of effort against Rangers recently and his touchline manner no doubt exacerbated an already volatile Tynecastle atmosphere, but this is no excuse in any way, shape or form for behaviour such as this to occur.
This is the second such incident to happen at Tynecastle in two years. Derek Riordan was subject to a similar attempted attack by a Hearts supporter immediately after scoring a penalty to put his side 1-0 up in an Edinburgh derby towards the end of the 2008/09 season. I just hope for the sake of the image of Hearts, and for that of Scottish football, that this is the last and we can get back to talking about the football, after a season of focusing on anything but.
As well as the governing bodies' inability to take the sport in the country forward, the media focus has been on such incidents as continued sectarian singing, bombs in the post and death threats, as well as fans' outrage when a manager goes on to the pitch to congratulate his team and supporters in a non-threatening manner.
Let's get back to talking about the football.
Friday, 13 May 2011
Saturday, 7 May 2011
Rangers 4 Hearts 0
Rangers celebrated Craig Whyte’s recent takeover with a comfortable 4-0 win, opening up a four point gap over their closest rivals Celtic. Hearts started the match well but capitulated in a five minute period before half-time which ended the match as a contest.
Walter Smith stuck with the same starting eleven and formation for the third match in a row and named Lee McCulloch on the bench after a long absence due to injury. Hearts started the match with no recognised centre-backs with Andy Webster and Ismael Bouzid injured and Marius Zaliukas “unavailable”. This meant that Eggert Jonsson captained the team alongside Adrian Mrowiec in central defence. Stephen Elliott was dropped to the bench and David Obua was handed a rare start, Ryan McGowan also started.
Decent start from Hearts
For the first twenty minutes, Hearts were the slightly better side although they failed to test Allan McGregor during this period. Jim Jefferies reintroduced his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation with Ryan Stevenson in attack. Obua started on the right of the ‘3’ but his starting position was relatively deep and he would often drift into the area in and around the centre circle and look to dictate play.
Hearts had two broad strategies in the first half. The first of these was for goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald to aim his distribution towards the head of Obua and the Ugandan international won the vast majority of his headers, which is unlike him. Despite his height he is usually poor in the air.
When the ball was in play, Hearts’ other strategy was to hit quick, diagonal passes into the feet of David Templeton. On a number of occasions the SPL young player of the year nominee took advantage of the poor positioning of Rangers right-back Steven Whittaker and gave the covering defender, Madjid Bougherra a torrid time when running at him. Unfortunately for Hearts, his final ball let him down and a cross-cum-shot that shaved the post was the closest Hearts came with any of the chances created through Templeton.
It seems that Rangers’ right-hand side had been identified as a possible weak point, not necessarily due to the personnel there but rather the position of the players. Here, as well as in the previous match versus Motherwell, Steven Naismith would often drift in from the right-hand side with Whittaker pushing on. This left them exposed on the right a number of times, however, Templeton slowly faded from the game towards the end of the half when Whittaker remained in position more often and Naismith’ performance became more disciplined.
Relatedly, Naismith struggled to get involved in the early stages of the match. When out of possession, the Hearts midfield sat very deep, perhaps due to the makeshift nature of their back four, and didn’t leave much space between them and the defence, the space in which Naismith (and whichever one of the front two drops off) likes to operate. Rangers were patient in their build-up but were reduced to attempting balls over the top of the Hearts defence when entering the final third.
Rangers take chances before half-time
Despite the good start by Hearts, Rangers had the points wrapped up before half-time. The first goal came courtesy of Nikica Jelavic on the twenty-third minute. Hearts had kept a deep defensive line for the opening stages of the match but were caught out with a poor execution of the offside trap. The Croatian international timed his run well, controlled brilliantly and finished from a tight angle after Steven Davis had sent a ball over the top of the Hearts defence. Davis put in another excellent performance, dropping deep to collect the ball and dictate as well as providing attacking impetus through his driving runs.
The five minutes that preceded the break saw Rangers increase their lead to 3-0. McGregor made a smart save from a long range Ian Black strike before quickly starting off a counter attack. Whittaker’s run culminated in a low cross from the right which was narrowly missed by Naismith at the near post. The ball was then cut back by Greg Wylde from the opposite side and Kyle Lafferty finished low to make it 2-0.
Minutes later another Wylde assist headed into the net by Davis. Mrowiec was caught ball-watching, leaving Jonsson two players to mark. Davis, not known for his heading ability, was left with the simple tasks of directing the ball goalwards from five yards. After a decent start to the match, Hearts found themselves 3-0 down going into the break with no way back.
Second half
The second half began with Rangers now focused on not conceding and allowing their opponents possession. Hearts were forced into a change when Templeton pulled up injured and he and Rudi Skacel, who was anonymous throughout, were replaced by Scott Robinson and Stephen Elliott. The pair were given no time to make an impression on the match as moments later Jonsson was ordered off for a foul on Jelavic. This meant that McGowan dropped into central defence and Hearts’ focus became damage-limitation rather than restoring pride.
Inevitably, Rangers completely dominated possession and it was surprising that they only managed to add one more goal – a Ryan Stevenson own goal – before the full-time whistle. Hearts were now lined up 4-4-1 with a very narrow midfield which allowed Rangers a lot of space in wide areas. Cross after cross was fired into the away box but the closest any Rangers player came to scoring was striking the woodwork, which they managed on two separate occasions.
Rangers introduced El-Hadji Diouf, David Healy and Lee McCulloch but these were designed more to rest players – as well as to give McCulloch some game time – rather than anything tactical.
Conclusion
The teams seemed pretty evenly matched for the majority of the first half but some woeful defending from Hearts allowed Rangers a comfortable victory, even though this will not go down as one of their better performances of the season.
David Templeton looked dangerous for about half an hour, taking advantage of the space afforded to him by the positioning of Naismith and Whittaker’s poor decision-making regarding when and when not to venture up-field. This was put right towards the end of the first half when Rangers began to double up on Templeton, a tactic used by many this season to quell the threat of the young winger.
Rangers won comfortably without having perform to the best of their ability. As mentioned, Whittaker struggled against Templeton and on the other side Sasa Papac struggled with the aerial ability of Obua, although only in areas where there was no immediate danger.
Steven Davis was excellent yet again for Rangers, he has had a tremendous second half to the season, and dictated play when Rangers were on top. The front two of Rangers also deserve a lot of credit. When there was little space to drop off into, they moved wide and worked the channels in order to bring others in to play. The two seem to have struck up a good understanding and Jelavic seems to bring the best out of Lafferty, who is only now beginning to justify the large amount of money Rangers paid for him three years ago.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Tactical shorts: Celtic 4 Dundee United 1
Celtic responded to Rangers' emphatic win the previous day with a comfortable win of their own.
With Joe Ledley missing, Neil Lennon opted to move Scott Brown into a central role and go with two wingers. Kris Commons played his usual role of switching between wide and central positions with James Forrest more of an out-and-out winger. Commons began on the left but was moved to the right, with Forrest switching to the left, after less than ten minutes. The pair switched once again at the start of the second half. Antony Stokes was restored to the starting line up and was the more advanced of the front two with Gary Hooper in a deeper role than he is known for.
Dundee United were at full strength and began in their usual 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation with a fluid midfield five. They pushed their full-backs on and attempted to attack from the off, rather than soaking up pressure like most teams that visit Celtic Park do.
The match began with both sides displaying equal amounts of stray passes and quick, intricate periods of possession. After the first goal, which involved a shocking error from Garry Kenneth and some excellent link up play from Stokes and Hooper, Dundee United became impotent as an attacking threat and only began to threaten again when they conceded a second and introduced Johnny Russell from the bench.
Midfield battle
Celtic were outnumbered by three to two in the centre of the pitch but a few different reasons negated this. Firstly, Scott Brown and Beram Kayal put it excellent performances, especially in a defensive sense. The tenacity of the pair and their constant harrying meant that Dundee United struggled to work the ball through the centre of the pitch.
Secondly, Celtic’s strategy was to move the ball quickly to Forrest and Commons and push the full-backs on. With their height disadvantage in attack, they then focused on working the ball across the goal in the form of cut backs and low, driven crosses.
One final reason was that the positions of Commons and Hooper meant that, at times, Celtic did have a third man in the centre of the pitch.
Celtic’s full-backs
Relatedly, Mark Wilson and Emilio Izaguirre were back to their attacking best. In recent matches, Wilson has, through design or necessity, found himself staying back more often than not, while some sides have managed to lessen the threat of Izaguirre. On Sunday, however, both managed to get forward on a number of occasions, provide support to the attack and put in dangerous crosses.
This had the knock on effect of causing the Dundee United wingers, Danny Swanson and Craig Conway, to track back more often than they would have liked, leaving Daniel Majstorovic and Charlie Mulgrew to deal with the isolated David Goodwillie.
Substitutions
Both managers made substitutions that made an impact on the game. After going 2-0 down, Peter Houston replaced Prince Bauben and Danny Swanson with Jon Daly and Johnny Russell and moved to a 4-4-2.
Dundee United instantly improved which was evidenced when Russell cut inside from the right wing and struck the post with a left foot strike. Russell wasted another chance when he decided to go for goal rather than squaring it to Goodwillie for a tap-in. Russell eventually scored in injury time but by that time it was too late and his side were three goals behind.
Lennon responded to the Dundee United substitutions by introducing Ki Sung-Yeung for Forrest and moving Brown to his, now familiar, tucked-in right sided role in a lopsided 4-4-2. It was now Celtic who had the man advantage in the centre of the park and the presence of Ki meant that they were able to utilise possession better and slow the pace of the game down.
A further substitution on seventy-five minutes saw Shaun Maloney replace Hooper and take up a trequartista role. Again this helped Celtic retain possession with the added bonus of a third goal which Maloney provided the assist for.
One final substitution for Celtic saw Brown withdrawn to be replaced by Daryl Murphy. Murphy restored Celtic’s three goal advantage with a fine solo effort in the final minute of injury time.
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.
Sunday, 24 April 2011
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
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.
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