How Celtic’s control on Tayside restored nine-point lead

It is now 21 victories in 23 league games this season, the win over the Tannadice side restored the Hoops’ nine-point advantage at the top of the Scottish Premiership. 

Ange Postecoglou’s men recorded their biggest-ever away win on the previous visit to Tannadice with a 9-0 victory last August but came up against a much more organised outfit this time around.

It took until Jota’s header, from a Mooy cross, 51 minutes in to break the deadlock before the former Brighton man doubled the lead from the penalty spot just five minutes later.  

Here, The Celtic Way highlights key StatsBomb data from the game in the City of Discovery to give you a match report experience like no other.

The Scottish champions took less than a minute to create the first chance of the game at Tannadice, Jota sliding the ball through for Kyogo who fired wide at the near post (0.11 xG).

The 22nd minute was when Postecoglou's side got their next shot on goal but United remained compact and organised, Jota forcing the host's goalkeeper Mark Birighitti into a smart stop at his near post. 

The Hoops created more chances during the remainder of the half with Jota firing in another couple of attempts and Mooy, Liel Abada and Reo Hatate also taking aim at Birigihitti’s goal. 

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However, none of these efforts were high-quality attempts as the United continued to restrict Celtic to any clear-cut openings. Kyogo’s second effort of the match, latching onto a through ball from right-back Alistair Johnston, was statistically the best chance of the half, carrying an xG value of 0.16. 

Jota had another effort from range early in the second 45 minutes, his fourth attempt of the match at the point (0.09 xG). His next effort just minutes later did open the scoring, however.

The Portuguese winger’s header at the back post from Mooy’s cross, in which he was almost off the pitch, had an xG of just 0.15 but a post-shot xG value of 0.50, highlighting Jota’s incredible accuracy from an almost impossible angle. 

Mooy's converted penalty was the next effort on goal with Celtic registering another six attempts before full-time. The best chance of those, and the whole match, fell to substitute Daizen Maeda who headed over from an excellent cross from new South Korean striker Oh Hyeon-gyu.

Dundee United’s failure to find a way past Joe Hart made it five clean sheets in a row for the Englishman with Celtic again limiting their opponents to just a few low-quality chances throughout the 90 minutes. 

Former Scotland striker Steven Fletcher was responsible for three of United’s four attempts on Hart’s goal. His header from a free-kick 15 minutes in, their best chance of the game, had an xG value of just 0.10.

Celtic’s overall control of the match is highlighted by the fact StatsBomb gave United just a 10 per cent chance of taking anything from the game. Based on chances created by both teams, Celtic were 90 per cent likely to emerge victorious on Tayside. 

Shots

Celtic had a total of 17 shots, excluding Mooy’s penalty. As mentioned though, very few of these were high-quality chances with the Hoops' non-penalty xG, 1.61 against United, a good bit under their average 2.34 non-penalty xG per 90 in this season’s Scottish Premiership. 

Dundee United’s shot map is relatively sparse with more of their xG (0.16) generated through set-pieces than open-play (0.11). 

Individually for Celtic, Jota took the most shots (five) in the match but with a total xG of just 0.37. Mooy was responsible for 0.89 of Celtic’s total xG, 0.78 of this coming from his penalty though. 

Kyogo had the second most attempts in the game but was unable to add to his goal tally from a total of 0.52 xG.

Possession, passing & positions

As is more often than not the case domestically, Celtic dominated the ball, enjoying 72 per cent possession and completing 733 of their 828 passes. 

The pass network gives a sense of where the game was played and who was most involved. The warmer the colour the more influential the player, while the thicker the passing lines the more passes between the players. 

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StatsBomb measures pass contributions in on-ball value (often referred to as OBV).

Celtic’s network also highlights their domination of not only the ball but also territory, with only Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carl Stafelt and Hart in their own half. 

The breakdown by half shows Johnston’s influence on the ball in the first-half. The Canadian registered the second-highest OBV (0.36) from 99 passes and had more connections with Kyogo than any other player in green and white. 

Hatate is noticeable in the first-half too. Positioned in the heart of midfield, the Japanese midfielder was a hub in the opening period with connections to more of his teammates than anyone else.

Jota had the highest OBV on the day though, registering a total value of 0.79 from just 15 passes. Greg Taylor’s rusty return to action at left-back is also notable, scoring the lowest OBV of any Celtic player (-0.07).

There is little shape to Dundee United’s network, highlighting their inability to get any foothold in the match. 

Glenn Middleton and Aziz Behich were their most productive players in possession in terms of OBV. Forward Middleton registered the hosts' highest OBV for the hosts (0.16) with left wing-back Behich second (0.13). 

Right wing-back Kieran Freeman, who struggled to contain Jota, had a particularly tough afternoon for United, registering the lowest OBV of any player on the pitch (-0.10).

Taylor did have a below-par return to the starting XI but still managed more key passes than anyone else in green and white. They did however only result in the creation of a total xG of 0.18. 

Substitute Matt O’Riley, Mooy and Johnston all had two each but it was the debuting Oh who had the highest xG of all of them from his one key pass, his cross for Maeda, which carried an xG value of 0.30. 

Pressing and defending

In pressing terms, both sides were closely matched with the Parkhead side just edging the volume of pressures, 135 to United’s 131. The Hoops also had slightly more regains than their opponents, 25 to 24. 

Celtic pressed most intensively on the left with Callum McGregor exerting the most pressures (15), followed by Japanese duo Hatate and Maeda. 

The Celtic captain certainly set the tone without the ball, completing the most counter-pressures (six). 

Midfielder Craig Sibbald was by far the busiest out of possession for the home side with 23 pressures seven more than Dylan Levitt and Freeman who had the next most with 16 each. 

United’s most intense pressures came on their right as they attempted to deal with the threat of an on-form Jota. 

In terms of traditional defensive metrics, the skipper’s work off the ball stands out again. McGregor had the most combined tackles and interceptions (nine) of any player in the match. 

Johnston and Starfelt were the most active in the air for Celtic with four wins each, the Canadian winning 57 per cent of his total aerial duels, Starfelt 67 per cent of his. 

Carter-Vickers was the most dominant though, winning all three of his aerial duels.