The 3 reasons Celtic are leaking goals and why it's not the fault of Ange Postecoglou's system

They have conceded just six times in eight matches which puts them just behind Hearts and Dundee United who have only conceded five so far.

Looking at xGA Celtic rank best in the Premiership on 5.14. This, coupled with being the best in the league at limiting opposition shot quality to just 0.08 xG/shot should have the fans confident that Ange has fixed Celtic’s defensive woes ... right?

Yes and no.

From open play, especially through central areas, Celtic have been solid in the league, not giving teams the opportunity to play through them. However, their Achilles heel has re-emerged this season again with 83% of the goals conceded coming from crossed balls. This value excludes Curtis Main’s goal that was wrongly chopped off for offside, which was also scored from a crossed ball.

With last seasons frailties from deliveries from wide areas fresh in everyone's memory, each one conceded feels like a new blow to a problem that should have been remedied some time ago.

Is it the system or the players at fault?

Ange’s system offers up the wide areas to better protect centrally because it's more likely a side will concede from being cut open through the middle rather than from a crossed ball. His system relies a lot on one vs one defending so any error made can be extremely damaging. This is what we have seen so far and what I’ll demonstrate.

Goal 1 v Hearts

On his debut, Carl Starfelt engages and loses his duel with Hearts getting the break of the ball. It is then crossed for Liam Boyce in an area where active players Celtic are heavily outnumbered by five to two.

Ralston is doing nothing in his position when he needs to be blocking a passing lane or marking an opponent and he gets drawn to the ball in a panic. After a block, we see the consequences of this error with the ball breaking to an area that has two Hearts players completely unmarked. While the goal was a mess with lots of errors, the Jambos did well to load the box with Celtic's midfield caught forward.

Goal 2 v Hearts

The first of the four headers Celtic have conceded so far this season, with three players marking no opposition attackers. This ends with one of the unmarked trio getting a free header while Bain gets his positioning all wrong, turning what should have been a simple save into a goal.

Goal 3 v St Mirren

McGregor identifies the danger when he sees the free man however, he doesn’t correct his run to mark him. This results in a running, free header that comes off Main and into the net but it was eventually, and wrongly, called offside. This was very poor from the captain, and if he identifies danger must be more decisive in acting to snuff it out.

Goal 4 v Rangers

Similar to the second Hearts goal in that it's another marking error. Celtic end up three on two at the back post and Helander gets a free run to jump at the ball. A basic mistake that cost us a result in a game we played very well in a tough environment.

Goal 5 v Livingston

Another individual error here, this time from Stephen Welsh. He doesn't turn to ascertain Andrew Shinnie’s position and is then lackadaisical with his clearance. He was also lucky not to give away a penalty before Shinnie finished.

Goal 6 v Dundee United

Ralston is weak in the duel which draws Carter-Vickers out however, the error that leads to the goal comes from McCarthy. In the red box, Celtic are three vs three defensively but, much like McGregor against St Mirren, McCarthy doesn’t follow the danger and ends up in a poor area, contributing nothing defensively. This leaves Starfelt and Juranovic outnumbered and both go zonal, unable to get out to Harkes who heads home.

Goal 7 v Aberdeen

Celtic defend this corner pretty well. You can’t win every ball, but if you don’t win it you need to make sure your opponent doesn’t have a clean go at it. The goal itself is fairly fortuitous as the ball comes off Ferguson’s shoulder and loops into the net. The individual error here from Hart is poor, getting caught ball watching and not reacting to immediate danger. Although Montgomery got some blame, he can’t grow taller or jump higher, so I'm not sure what people expected him to do.

Conclusion

After an assessment of how we concede, it's obvious Ange Postecoglou's system is not to blame. The main 3 issues are:

1. Individual Errors
2. Marking Errors
3. Not reacting to danger

While marking at set plays has been improving as the season has gone on, we need to cut out basic errors of judgement to stop the leaking of goals from crossed balls.