Tactical Analysis – Hearts v Celtic

Hearts continued their positive start to the new season on the opening day of the league campaign with a first victory over Celtic since 2018. Gary Mulraney of The Maroon Report provides us with his tactical analysis of the match.

Heart of Midlothian 2-1 Celtic
31/07/2021

Line-ups

Robbie Neilson looks to be favouring a 3-4-3 system at the moment, unlike the 4-2-3-1 we frequently saw last season. Out of possession this can be altered into a 5-4-1 low defensive block. Gary Mackay-Steven and Josh Ginnelly were deployed to exploit the space Celtic leave in transition, with Boyce the central axis.

Under new manager Ange Postecoglou’s tactical set-up, on paper Celtic play with a 4-3-3 but with different tactical roles; particularly with the full-backs, which then alters the system into a 2-3-2-3 with the ball. Anthony Ralston and Greg Taylor have complex positional instructions, playing as inverted full-backs in possession.

Hearts Attacking Organisation

Hearts, unlike the very possession orientated Celtic, regularly used vertical passes in their build-up play. One of the main advantages of a vertical pass in initial build-up phases is that it breaks two lines of opposition defence, meaning the opposition midfield is in front of the ball when the pass reaches its destination. In order to stop an immediate loss of possession, the receiving player (usually Boyce) will need a suitable support structure around him, which he had with Mackay-Steven and Ginnelly.

Boyce is comfortable receiving the ball with his back to goal and changing direction in one fluid movement. This allowed Mackay-Steven and Ginnelly to focus on maintaining a larger distance away to create space for a one-v-one opportunity with the opposition centre back and exploiting the vacant space left by Ralston and Taylor when Celtic lost possession.

Hearts Defensive Organisation

Without the ball, the team was organised in a 5-4-1 medium (initially) to low block. The aim was to prevent Celtic from playing into the central areas of the pitch, which they attempted to do through their numerical superiority; especially the left half-space with McGregor and Taylor.

New signing Beni Baningime had an outstanding debut, showing excellent spatial awareness and positional intelligence. It was clear he was instructed to close the space between himself and McGregor when he received the ball. However, due to the positions, Taylor took up in the half-space to create two-v-one advantage. Beni (instructed or not, but I think it was of his own accord) used man-oriented zonal marking to be able to deal with them both. This is a marking method I’ve not seen in our team. It is reflected in his heat map, as the images below illustrate.

Tactical change

In the second half Hearts were unable to recycle possession effectively and Celtic were continually building attacks, so Robbie Neilson brought on Peter Haring for Mackay-Steven to create a three-man pivot in midfield to combat this. The tactical change meant Hearts moved from the 3-4-3 formation to an asymmetrical 4-4-1-1/4-4-2.

Conclusion

In my opinion, Robbie got his tactical and opposition match strategy spot on; in terms of the game plan to face Celtic and exploit their weaknesses. The execution was carried out fairly competently. However, it was breached at various times, to that end we have a solid foundation and the three points to build on in this system; particularly against possession based teams.

Full time statistics

Goals: 2-1
xG: 1.16 – 1.32
Shots: 11-19
xG per Shot: 0.11 – 0.07
Possession: 27% – 73%
Passes: 148 – 576
Pass completion rate: 68% – 91%