Who stands in Celtic's way in their quest for treble glory?

Celtic were back to their best in their most recent fixture as they thrashed Aberdeen 5-0 on trophy day in Paradise. 

Doubles from Kyogo Furuhashi and Oh Hyeon-gyu, and a Carl Starfelt header, secured a convincing victory in the Hoops’ final Scottish Premiership match of the season. 

After failing to win their three games since clinching the title, the champions' return to form is perfectly timed ahead of their treble-defining Scottish Cup final.

All attention now turns to the Hampden showpiece on Saturday June 3, with Championship Inverness Caledonian Thistle standing between Ange Postecoglou’s side and glory. 

But who exactly stands in Celtic's way in their quest for treble glory?

Here, we take a look at the Highlanders' route to the final and look at how they will likely set up in an attempt to pull off what would be an almighty upset at the national stadium. 

Route to the final 

Previous Scottish Cup winners in 2015, Inverness started their journey to the 2023 final with a narrow 3-2 win over this season’s League Two champions Stirling Albion in the third round. 

They were then given a reprieve following a fourth-round defeat to fellow Championship side Queen’s Park after the Spiders were ejected from the competition for fielding an ineligible player. 

They made the most of their luck from there, though, securing an impressive 3-0 win away at Livingston before then overcoming another Premiership opponent in Kilmarnock at home 2-1 to seal a last-four place. 

Billy Dodds' side continued their remarkable run by seeing off third-tier Falkirk 3-0 with a ruthless semi-final display.

Their cup run, coupled with some injuries to key personnel, did see them miss out on the play-off spots in the league, though, losing their final Championship fixture 2-1 against Ayr United. When they take to the pitch for the final, it will have been more than a month since their last competitive match. 

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Whether that break will be beneficial or not will only be known after the first whistle at Hampden.

Likely starting XI

Despite this extended preparation time, it seems unlikely Caley Thisle will change their set-up too much for the Hampden showpiece. 

They have lined up a 4-2-3-1 shape on quite a few occasions this season but their more defensive 4-4-1-1, just a slight variation on the 4-2-3-1, has been favoured mostly, as it was in the semi-final against Falkirk. 

Should they stick with that tried-and-tested formation then the experienced Mark Ridgers will start between the sticks behind the first-choice centre-back pairing of Danny Devine and Robbie Deas. 

At full-back, Cameron Harper, who has impressively registered nine goal contributions in the Championship this season, is likely to take up the left-back berth. 

On the opposite side, Dodds will pick from either former Celtic academy player Wallace Duffy, who played there in the semi-final for the Highland side, or David Carson. The latter, a midfielder by trade, has been the preferred pick at right-back this season but missed the last few games of the season.  

The two central midfield spots will be filled by captain Sean Welsh and Scott Allardice, with Jay Henderson, on loan from St Mirren, and Dan MacKay, on loan from Hibs, the leading candidates to take up the wide midfielder roles.  

Veteran striker Billy Mckay will be their focal point, supported by pacey English forward Nathan Shaw, who has also played on the left at points during the season too. Without the ball, Shaw, or whoever plays in behind Mckay, will likely drop back to make a midfield five and match up Celtic in the middle of the park. Mckay will be left up the pitch to offer them an out ball.    

Dodds will also have the experience of Aaron Doran, part of the 2015 cup-winning side alongside Devine, and striker Shane Sutherland to choose from in his squad. Other attacking options will include Nathan Samuels, formerly of Aberdeen, and Stephen Boyd, another who started his youth career at Celtic. 

Build-up

Inverness are comfortable in recycling the ball around the back four and at the base of the midfield. They are usually secure enough in doing this too but they will then look to play long into the channels, often missing out the midfield entirely. 

This is evidenced in their possession data from the Championship this season. They were top for the number of passes attempted this season, 379.75 per 90 but also topped the long ball metric in Scotland’s second tier (63.17 per 90).

An example of this can be seen above from their semi-final with Falkirk. Here, left-centre Deas plays a pass into midfielder Welsh. 

Welsh plays the ball straight back to Deas and, after a few more passes between Deas and left-back Cameron, they work it back to Ridgers who then goes long. 

Ridgers can struggle on the ball at times, and his kicking, in general, can be inconsistent too, so this is a typical example in terms of them looking to build around the back four but then going long after just a few passes.

It will be interesting to see if Inverness commit to attempting even a few passes around the back before going long. Given the amount of work they will have to do off the ball in general, they may look to keep hold of the ball just to give themselves a breather. If they go long too quickly and it doesn’t stick, they risk inviting Celtic onto them even more. 

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For Celtic, if Inverness do look to hang onto the ball for at least some amount of time, this offers the potential to quickly get into high-quality scoring situations in the final third if their press is on point and they can turn the ball over effectively. 

Final third 

Once they have possession in the final third, Inverness will, more often than not, look to quickly get quality service into the box from wide areas. Mckay is the main target but the wide player on the opposite side, the secondary striker and one of the central midfielders will also look to attack the box. 

They will look to cross early, from deeper positions with the wide players rarely trying to hit the byline. 

This was certainly effective against Falkirk in the semi-final with both their goals from open play coming quality crosses from deep into the Bairns’ box. 

The above still shows, following a turnover in possession in the middle of the park, and Mckay then playing the ball out wide, Henderson crossing from deep on the right side. 

Measured perfectly onto the head of the opposite side wide midfielder MacKay, who finished well, their willingness to cross from these areas, early and with good quality, will be something Celtic will have to be aware of when Caley do get on the ball in the final third, even if that is not too often. 

Mckay threat 

Celtic will need to be aware of the threat of the vastly experienced striker Mckay in general too. The 34-year-old, who has had spells at Ross County and Dundee United, has 84 Scottish top-flight goals to his name. 

He won’t offer much of a threat in behind but he has clever movement, brings others into the game well and he is still more than reliable in front of goal, bagging a steady 13 goals from a season total xG of 13.4 in the Championship this season. 

His second in the semi-final, which was his 100th goal for Caley, highlights the danger he will still present to the Hoops backline. 

Separating himself from the Falkirk centre-back to exploit space between centre-back and full-back, Mckay timed his run brilliantly to meet the cross from MacKay. 

He then showed brilliant technique to cushion the ball past the goalkeeper on the volley.   

He may not get the same sight of goal at Hampden this weekend as he did in the semi-final, but Celtic should be aware of his quality and ensure they limit the service to the Northern Irishman. 

Conclusion

Having knocked out two Premiership opponents en route to the final, Inverness represent an experienced, well-organised side capable of producing some moments of decent quality in the final third. 

They will no doubt sit in a low block, staying narrow and compact and looking to make the most of any opportunities that can fashion in transition phases. Set plays may also offer them their best bet of testing Joe Hart in the Celtic goal. 

Ultimately, and without being disrespectful, they are still a Championship side and one that, despite their run to the final and injuries being mitigating factors, failed to secure a top-four place in the second tier. 

Their underlying numbers this season suggest even their fifth-place finish was something of an overachievement. They overperformed in terms of goals, scoring 52 from a total xG of just 44.35, according to Wyscout, while they also conceded less than they would have been expected to, only conceding 42 goals but giving up a total xG against of 55.99. 

Part of that overachievement in the league was down to Ridgers’ form in goals. The former Hearts keeper registered the second-best prevented goals value (7.55) of any goalkeeper in the Championship. 

Inverness will need quite the ‘overperformance’ again on Saturday to even match a side of Celtic’s quality, though. 

It is quite possible that even if Ridgers, and some of his Inverness team-mates, produce their very best at the national stadium, it will still not be enough to deny Postecoglou and his side from making history and securing an eighth domestic treble.