Thread on yesterday's Celtic-Nice friendly- it will be long so will summarize first. As I referenced yesterday with their SPI ranking, they are an ok team but one we should handle with relative ease. Obvious caveat is it being 1st game and a friendly. It was a pre-break throwback

We played even with an inferior team and our best players are not being put in their best positions or empowered to leverage their best qualities, IMO. The result was the 1st team losing the xG battle slightly at about 0.96-1.04 on a per 90 minute basis.

Almost every single issue I started harping about in December last year was again on full display. In possession we played mostly a 4-2-3-1 with fullbacks pressed high, again making the attack lopsided left. Edouard and McGregor's attacking output were negligible.

They had a combined 0.28 xG+xA per 90 minutes. Brown had 45 passes but only 4 were forward while McGregor had 55 and 21. Most worryingly for me is how we are pressing and the risks we encounter in Europe to defensive transitions in the midfield. First some data on pressing.

Lennon's side had a PPDA (proxy for pressing intensity) in 19-20 season of about 8 both in the domestic league and in Europa league. Obviously, we are facing better quality opponents in Europe, and most teams see at least some decline in intensity against better opponents.

Neither Edouard nor Forrest are particularly effective pressers, which leaves even more importance on the positioning, athleticism, and effective of our midfielders if we are to press aggressively against better quality opponents.

I have broken down a couple of sequences to highlight the problem- goal sequence 1st. Moiloses the ball 1 vs 1 in attacking 3rd and kicks off a defensive transition. I've marked up position groups in different colors with Brown in yellow box. Can see he is central in 2 w/ CM.

Brown engages the attacker but is late, which triggers a 1-2 where he is bypassed and middle of the pitch opens wide. What was an 8 on 5 in Celtic's favor becomes a 3 vs 3. Brown chases the ball into Frimpong instead of tracking the runner.

We can see how Forrest and Taylor are tracking back and McGregor is a step more advanced than Brown as the Nice player sends a diagonal pass to the left channel.

1st shot is the Nice striker with possession in the box with our defense collapsing central. 2nd is just as he shoots and you can see McGregor had recovered to be right in front of the shooter with Brown just emerging into the shot.

Lennon has Brown pressing in the opponents 3rd aggressively. These are right after the 2nd half kickoff and fortunately McGregor won a tackle but the entire middle of the pitch was wide open.

Here is an example from 49th minute of how advanced Brown is pressing at times and midfield shape. We can get away with this mostly in the league ex-Rangers- I just don't understand why we are using a 35 yr old midfielder this way- something I would drool over as an opposing team

Which brings me back to my concerns over the upcoming CL qualifiers where the margins for error will be razor thin and losing to an inferior team could result in Edouard leaving and that jeopardizing 10iar. I'll continue to monitor in the next 2 games- both vs much better sides.