Celtic returned to the top of the Scottish Premiership table after a comfortable win at Motherwell on Sunday. The hosts hit the woodwork twice in the early stages, but a Luke McCowan strike on his first Celtic start just before the half-hour mark sent Brendan Rodgers’ side on their way to a solid 3-0 win. 

That was despite Celtic having to do without their influential captain at Fir Park too, with Callum McGregor side-lined following an abductor issue. Right-back Alistair Johnston was handed the armband in his absence – the Canadian impressing before heading home the second. Substitute Adam Idah then completed the scoring. 

Given his full debut after a string of eye-catching performances off the bench, McCowan was also impressive at the weekend. Stand-in skipper Johnston picked up man-of-the-match, though, as he scored for the second straight away game in the league.  On the opposite flank, Barcelona loanee Alex Valle continued to grow into his left-back role with another effective display, too. The 20-year-old La Masia graduate, given his chance due to an injury to Greg Taylor, has steadily improved game-on-game in recent weeks. 

Here, we highlight some of Valle’s key moments and stand-out stats from his latest encouraging outing in green and white…

Pass to Hatate (11 mins)

Despite the Steelmen’s strong start, Celtic soon took control of proceedings with Valle influential, the on-loan Barca full-back driving out with the ball to good effect as Celtic began to then push the home side back. Showcasing his ability to carry the ball at pace, he combined with Dazien Maeda in the wide areas on several occasions in the opening exchanges.

Valle’s willingness to make quick switches of play from those more inverted positions started to cause the home side problems, though. With Motherwell compact and well-organised, switching play from side to side to disrupt their 5-3-2 shape that packed the middle of the pitch was key to breaking them down. 

An early example of this was Valle’s pass inside to Reo Hatate after just over ten minutes. A difficult pass to execute, the former Levante loanee threaded the ball through two Motherwell players at pace to free Hatate in space on the edge of the home side’s box. 

This allowed space for Hatate to spray the ball out to Johnston on the opposite side, stretching the Well backline. 

The move ended up freeing McCowan on the edge of the box on the inside right channel for an effort of goal that was deflected out for a corner by a Motherwell defender. 

Role in McCowan opener (27 mins)

It would be a similar piece of play from Valle that would help break the deadlock fifteen minutes later. 

After receiving the ball from Auston Trusty, Valle’s first touch was inside, and he again drove into the middle of the pitch, this time finding McCowan between the lines. 

Finding a teammate in a central area in the final third again, Valle’s willingness to do this once more, and at speed, generated a bit more space between the hosts’ midfield line and backline on this occasion.

This allowed McCowan the chance to take on the turn and drive at the Motherwell backline, with the former Dundee man going to sweep a fine strike into Aston Oxborough’s bottom left corner to open the scoring.

Assist for Johnston (56 mins)

A ricochet off of a Motherwell defender robbed Valle of the assist for McCowan’s goal, but there was no denying him the assist credit when it came to Johnston’s goal ten minutes into the second half. 

With Celtic again moving the ball side-to-side to good effect, Hatate fed the ball into Valle in the inside left channel. 

Valle took just one touch before shaping a lovely ball into the box that picked out Johnston, who had carried on his run into the middle of the six-yard box, to head home. 

StatsBomb data

Data from StatsBomb further highlights Valle’s influence on proceedings in North Lanarkshire on Sunday afternoon. 

His impact on Celtic’s attacking output is certainly underlined, with the data provider registering three key passes for Valle, worth a combined 0.21 xG Assisted. Those three key passes were the joint most (with James Forrest and substitute Nicolas Kuhn) of any player at Fir Park. His 0.21 xG Assisted was only outdone by Kuhn (0.34 xG Assisted). Valle also registered one shot, worth an xG of 0.02. 

His attacking influence is further underlined by his 29 open play final third passes, just one fewer than McCowan, who registered the highest of any player on the pitch in this regard. Valle also completed 86 per cent of his long balls (seven) and finished with an overall pass completion percentage of 89 per cent. 

StatsBomb’s possession value metric, on-ball value (often referred to as OBV, a term breakdown can be read here), also highly rated Valle’s performance. His 0.34 OBV score from 67 passes was only beaten, of all the starters on the day, by the home side’s teenage star Lennon Miller (0.60 from 23 passes). It was also only bettered by Kuhn’s highly productive cameo (0.37 from nine passes) amongst those in green and white. 

Defensively, Valle made one tackle, two interceptions and two clearances. He also registered five pressures and one counterpressure. He did commit two fouls, one in the first half, which was particularly needless, and only won one of his three aerial duels, according to StatsBomb’s data. 

Although there is room for improvement for the defensive side of his game, in his ‘defence’ Valle wasn’t dribbled past once on Sunday. The Spanish youngster has yet to be dribbled past in any of his Scottish Premiership appearances to date. 

Conclusion

After playing his part in Celtic’s impressive shutout in Atalanta on Champions League duty last midweek, Valle’s performance at Motherwell at the weekend further encapsulated the young Spaniards’ potential.  Although there are areas of his game that need refinement, predominately in aspects of his defensive work, he continues to impress, especially as an attacking threat. 

He has shown he is capable of coming inside the pitch and providing the kind of penetrative passing in central areas that Greg Taylor has produced to good effect in recent years. A strong ball carrier, he also has the athleticism to go on the outside, though, something which could be utilised more if and when Celtic look to mix up their attacking play. 

Quick and strong, although there are those parts of his defensive game that still need development, he has the physical attributes and continues to show good, controlled aggression without the ball. 

This latest performance highlights that Valle has not only proved to be an able deputy for the injured Greg Taylor in recent weeks but is now steadily making a strong case to become Brendan Rodgers’ starting left-back going forward.