Another good write up Rocko but I would apportion more blame to Rogne and Blackman and less to Mulgrew and Lustig. I take the point that the latter two could have been more alert but the others were directly responsible in my opinion. Blackman in letting the danger develop and being there at the end to deflect it past Forster and Rogne’s decision to come inside and vacate the space that Rae ran into was a very poor one.
Yeah I wouldn’t disagree with that, just got bored by the time I got to the percentages. Certainly think Blackman deserves more than others but Rogne was in a position to directly intervene alright, the others were more passively at fault.
Looking at that there I agree fully with Rocko about Lustig. Very worrying seeing a full back so lazy and laboured in his defensive tasks. For all Cha’s faults he would be breaking himself to get back there.
A flat, lethargic display from Celtic all over the park in the League Cup Final was matched by a defence who looked disjointed throughout and gave up far too many chances against an admirably positive Kilmarnock side.
Neil Lennon reverted to what appears to be the first choice back four today after experimenting with new full backs and a different centre back partnership in the last couple of weeks. The Rogne-Wilson axis was less authoritative than recent games with Kilmarnock finding ways to exploit Rogne's lack of pace and Wilson's less physical attributes.From the beginning of the game the two centre backs looked uncertain in dealing with balls played in behind. Within the first ten minutes three balls had been hit over Rogne’s head with both centre backs scampering behind to retrieve them. The dominance that Rogne usually enjoys in the air was tempered by the fact that Killie were smart enough to play it behind him - exploiting that area, forcing Wilson to track way out of position.
Wilson’s casualness
For the first spell of the game these threats didn’t develop into anything for Kilmarnock but by the half hour mark Wilson’s composure was beginning to look more like casualness and a couple of harmless situations escalated into panic among the Celtic defence. Firstly a straightforward flick through eluded Wilson completely and the defender had to recover with an admittedly impressive lunge to knock the ball to safety.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3183" rel="attachment wp-att-3183]
Ten minutes later and the same sort of desperate stretch (this time after some more indecisiveness or blatant sleepwalking) was less successful with Wilson’s efforts to cover his own error merely diverting the ball into a dangerous area and Heffernan was played through on goal only to be denied by alert goalkeeping from Forster.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3184" rel="attachment wp-att-3184]
With the second half less than five minutes old Celtic gifted Kilmarnock their best chance of the game apart from the goal. A determined run by Shields resulted with the ball dropping at Wilson’s feet at the edge of the Celtic penalty area and the defender half-heartedly poked the ball straight against the Kilmarnock midfielder instead of clearing the ball, and man with it if required, into the stand. Wilson was perhaps unfortunate that the ball broke so kindly for Shiels but nothing should have been left to chance in a situation like that. And whatever misfortune he endured was more than compensated for by the nervous finish wide by Shiels.
Counter Attacks
Celtic were vulnerable throughout the game to quick breaks from Kilmarnock and only some errant passing, a (rare) generous refereeing decision to stop play for a head knock and some good recovery work from Adam Matthews in particular prevented the underdogs from converting promising opportunities into gilt-edged chances.
Brown, an excellent performer on the day, was caught in possession after nine minutes and the break exposed Celtic’s centre backs with both full-backs caught slightly ahead of play. The defensive situation was far from straightforward with Rogne and Wilson both needing to make a decision on who to pick up but the result was a disjointed effort at collaboration in the still image below. Rogne was attracted to the ball, as he tends to be even with runners outside, while Wilson opted to sweep behind but covered neither the wide player nor the infinitely more dangerous runner through the centre. Only a poorly executed through ball from Harkins to Shiels saved the day on that occasion.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3186" rel="attachment wp-att-3186]
Later on in the first half Harkins attracted Wilson to the ball near Celtic’s left touchline, slipped it past him and angled a diagonal ball over Rogne’s head to Heffernan but Matthews made up ground on the flight of the ball and Celtic were able to crowd the Kilmarnock striker and force the ball back to the goalkeeper.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3185" rel="attachment wp-att-3185]
On its own that situation was not alarming but it was indicative of a general vulnerability at the heart of Celtic’s defence on the break, and like other teams in recent weeks, Kilmarnock were happy to target the area behind Rogne for long balls but they were clever enough to remove Wilson from the equation first.
The Goal
It was no huge surprise when the Kilmarnock goal came and that in itself told its own story. Celtic turned the ball over in attack with a Matthews cross blocked at the edge of the box and Kilmarnock broke downfield at a leisurely pace. Celtic’s defence had plenty of time to regroup by the time of the goal however and nobody can point fingers at being caught out of position as an excuse for their defending.
The first problem comes from Ki’s lack of awareness or lack of effort in tracking the run of Lee Johnson across the face of the goal. The Korean midfielder allowed Johnson to run across the back of him and was too slow to react to the ball down the channel from Gordon who had been at least held up by Matthews.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3188" rel="attachment wp-att-3188]
Ki’s starting position is poor, as illustrated in the image above, but it’s his reaction times that are more troubling. The ball from Gordon requires Johnson to run across the face of Ki and he manages to achieve that with ease, putting a yard’s daylight between the two players over the space of 10 yards. Pace isn’t Ki’s great strength but he’s quicker than that when he is switched on and this was more a lapse in concentration than any physical deficiency.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3189" rel="attachment wp-att-3189]
As the ball comes across, the marking in the penalty area, zonal or man-to-man, is very clear. Wanyama has the front post and Heffernan while Wilson has responsibility for the back post and Van Tornhout. Neil Lennon spoke after the game about not allowing crosses to pass between the defenders and the goalkeeper and his initial reading (without seeing a replay) is correct. If the ball is pulled back to a runner from midfield then the defenders have been taken out of the game. A cross along the 6 yard box should be there to be headed away however and it’s ball-watching and a huge lapse in concentration from Wilson that allows his man to ghost past him to head home.
The flight of the cross takes both Forster and Wanyama out of the equation, so credit to Johnson for angling the ball into a dangerous area. But Wilson is perfectly positioned to take one or two steps and head the ball over the bar. He’s not even required to jump. He opts to stand still instead and the Belgian striker merely has to walk forward to nod the ball home and win the match for Kilmarnock.
The image below shows Wilson and Van Tornhout’s starting and finishing positions superimposed onto the same image. It actually presents the defender in a relatively favourable light as he took a couple of steps towards the ball just as the ball drifted past him and he actually ended up in relative proximity to the striker as he was heading home.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3190" rel="attachment wp-att-3190]
It is clear however that Wilson was in the perfect starting position to deal with the cross and he simply didn’t make enough (or any) effort to attack the ball and avert the danger.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=3191" rel="attachment wp-att-3191]
Blame:
Wilson: 70% - The majority of the blame lies with the defender. He has one job to do and he fails to even attempt it, nevermind carry it out properly. Perhaps the presence of Rogne alongside him has allowed Wilson to forget about the basics of defending crosses too much because of the Norwegian’s aerial ability. Either way this was a dreadful lapse in an overall poor performance from the centre back.
Ki: 30% - Ki’s defending for the goal is simply poor from beginning to end. He allows Johnson to drift goalside for no reason, he fails to spot the danger of the ball down the channel and then reacts too slowly when that pass is played. He brings many positive attributes to the role of defensive midfielder from a possession point of view but he really needs to work on his protection for the back four if he wants to hold down that role with any regularity.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?p=3180]Read the full story here
Agree with all that.
I’d apportion more blame to Ki. It’s shocking the way he has just let his man run off him, sheer laziness and not concentrating - especially given the fact that he’s only after coming into the game. We have conceded a lot of goals from those kind of situations this season, was it Kayal and Ki who started against Kille in the 3-3 game and just let the runners from midfield go off them the entire match?
Wilson seems like the kind of guy who has the intelligence of a yokel, seems to have serious lapses of concentration and can be very casual on the ball. Can’t understand why Rogne was substituted ahead of Wilson yesterday, unless he was injured, Rogne was quite solid while Wilson already had a few hairy moments.