Aug 21, 20233 min read

Kilmarnock v Celtic (Match Stats)

Updated: Aug 22, 2023

Kilmarnock 1

xG 0.84

(Watkins 59)

Celtic 0

xG 1.03

Celtic's xG of 1.03 was better than I thought it would be after watching the game however 8 shots at goal is lower than any of Ange's league games over the last two years with the exception of the two Ibrox games last season which were also 8 shots each.

Celtic had 604 passes which was lower than the previous meeting at Rugby Park (726). Brendan Rodgers teams have been passing more in the first two games so I don't know what happened in this game. Similarly possession was only 66% versus 77% in April. (It was actually 82% in the first half in April).

Despite having less passes than that game in April Celtic did have more passes into the box in this game. 33 passes into the penalty box versus 27 in April. Also despite the narrative that Rodgers teams play back passes Celtic had 13% back passes in this game versus 16% in April.

Celtic had 12% of their passes to the final third in this game versus 11% in April.

Although game state can have an impact on these stats as Celtic were cruising in the first half in April and had less need to push forward.

Celtic lined up with;

Hart
Ralston, Nawrocki, Lagerbielke and Taylor
O'Riley, McGregor and Holm
Abada, Kyogo and Maeda

Two changes from the Aberdeen game with new signing Lagerbielke coming in for the injured Carter-Vickers and Holm getting a start ahead of Turnbull who dropped to the bench. According to Rodgers Welsh would have replaced Carter-Vickers but he was also out injured.

I'm not a fan of Abada and Maeda playing together as their weaknesses are very similar and this can help teams playing against Celtic. Ange only played them 4 times together (3 times last season and once the season before) in the league and that would evidence that Ange didn't fancy them playing together either. One of those games being the dreadful performance against St Mirren in September where Celtic lost 2-0.

Haksabanovic and Bernabei retained their places on the bench after coming back into the squad last week and they joined Yang, Forrest, Bain and Iwata again on the bench like they did last week. With Turnbull dropping to the bench from last week's starting eleven that left two places up for grabs with Carter-Vickers and Welsh out injured and those places went to Scales and Kwon.

Unlike Ange Rodgers only used 3 subs in this game with Turnbull, Yang and Haksabanovic coming on as subs for Holm, Abada and O'Riley. I can't understand how Bernabei wasn't brought on for Taylor to give a bit of freshness and Bernabei does offer something different going forward. It maybe is evidence of what Rodgers' opinion of Bernabei is.

Lagerbielke had the most passes in this match at 115 with 103 of them being successful (90%) and he received 86 which was the most too. 28 of them from Nawrocki. Lagebielke also had 21 recoveries.

McGregor had 49 passes in this match which was well down on his 70 in April and he only played 69 minutes in April.

Best performers for xG were Kyogo 0.73 and Yang 0.27

Best for xA for Celtic was Holm 0.48.

Top goal contributor combined was Kyogo with his 0.73 xG as he had 0 xA

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