Why Celtic left-back Greg Taylor is thriving under Ange Postecoglou

Due to this, he has arguably always faced an uphill battle to win over the Celtic support as he battled to offer what Tierney had before.

However, due to the club's more erratic recruitment under Neil Lennon this was an unfair task to hand Taylor as he and Tierney - simply - were very different types of players.

Taylor never had the raw athleticism and acceleration that Tierney used to beat players one-v-one but, despite this and in the face of criticism, he always offered a strong level of creative output for Celtic from left-back. He might not have been flashy but he was efficient, with good ability on the ball and was steady defensively under Lennon.

Taylor has been one of the biggest benefactors from the appointment of Ange Postecoglou as the system he deploys is well suited to his style of play. It prioritises his good positioning and passing while taking away the requirement to beat players and hit the byline like a natural full-back.

The inverted full-back role allows Taylor to come into the middle of the pitch to help Celtic’s build-up play, offering the centre-backs a route out or allowing central players to push up further. His quick adaption to this role has made him one of the most important players in Postecoglou’s system and the fans have finally started taking to the Scottish international who is only 24 and has a huge amount to still offer Celtic.

Heatmaps

Below we have pulled the action maps from Taylor this season and from the dismal previous league campaign.

The difference in style is quite drastic as before Taylor was being used as a traditional hug-the-touchline sort of full-back that offensively was aiming to work crosses into the box.

Now though he’s part full-back, part central midfielder as he comes into the left-sided half-space to help dictate and control play. The consequence of this allows Celtic to generate more numerical superiority centrally and push the attacking midfielders further up the pitch.

StatsBomb radars

When looking at the full-back template in StatsBomb, we can see how the role change for Taylor has affected his metrics.

The most noticeable is the sharp rise in xGBuildup from 0.77 to 1.02 per 90 minutes as he gets involved on the ball more frequently and centrally. This improvement is compounded by increases in deep completions and passing accuracy that both improve as he is in areas of the pitch that make these actions easier.

His successful dribbles per 90 has decreased as this system does not prioritise that skill, which is one he is weaker at anyway. Defensively, due to increased pressing, he gets bypassed more by the opposition but the benefit from this increased aggression has been an increase in possession-adjusted interceptions which help Celtic transition into attack more frequently.

A quick glance at Taylor’s OBV metrics shows that under Lennon he produced much higher scores across the board outside of defensive actions.

Does this mean he was better last season? No. It means he was playing much further up the park allowing him to play the ball into dangerous areas more often. Now the system focuses on getting our better creative midfielders in these areas rather than Taylor.

His dribble and carry score is lower as he doesn’t play as high and performs those actions less frequently. The big positive is how solid he has been defensively where he has jumped from the 19th to 98th percentile under Postecoglou.

It was a piece of really smart business by the club when they renewed Taylor's deal through to 2025. With the season he’s having, teams from down south would definitely have been interested.

Thankfully, though, Taylor looks like he will be staying with Celtic - and Postecoglou - for the foreseeable future.