Before we begin, we want to make one thing clear: Wilfried Nancy deserves time to prove whether he can succeed as Celtic manager.
However, while we don’t want to join the cacophony of voices calling for his dismissal after one match in charge—a 2-1 loss to Hearts, with a scoreline that flattered the Hoops—because he used a tactics board with the blue pieces and made some questionable comments in his post-match remarks (his English is much better than our French, or even our English), we can’t help but wonder: Was he simply trying too hard?
The Full Scottish
Served by Brian P. Dunleavy
Coming in with a reputation as a tactical genius from his time in MLS, Nancy opted to trot out a 3-4-2-1 formation in his first match in charge. It is, after all, his preferred formation.
That he made the switch after only two training sessions, though, seems, well, a bit strange, particularly given that he went with a back three of three left-footed players (American Auston Trusty, Irishman Liam Scales and Scot Kieran Tierney).
Notably, he left right-footed right backs Anthony Ralston and Colby Donovan on the bench. To be fair, it wasn’t the first time the team had played in that formation—erstwhile manager Brendan Rodgers resorted to it at one point earlier in the season when he quite literally ran out of fit left and right backs.
Nancy gets started
In this case, however, the tactical switch meant that Trusty and Yang Hyun-Jun were tasked with roles for which they may not be best-suited, the former as a facilitator and the latter as a defender.
Trusty made 112 passes against Hearts, not all of them of high quality. Conversely, captain Callum McGregor, normally used in a midfield role that connects the play, made only 94.
Celtic didn’t lose the match because of Trusty’s play on the day, but his increased role as a passer surely contributed to the Hoops’ paltry 7.4% crossing accuracy (27 attempts). Hearts’ crossing accuracy in the match, meanwhile, was 41.7%.
Yang, similarly, wasn’t culpable on either of the Jambos’ goals. But nor was he effective in the attacking third.
“I wouldn’t focus so much on the formation,” Tierney told the media after the match. “[Nancy’s] ideas are good about creating overloads, finding the free man. It’s only been a couple of days, so the manager’s just got a few messages across. It’ll be impossible to get every single detail across in a few days.”
Exactly. So why try?