First of all let me be clear, I am not asking Ange Postecoglou to change his playing style. Nor am I asking for Champions League barricade football like we saw from the team across Glasgow at Anfield on Tuesday night. All I’m asking for is a slight tweak.
The current midfield three, if I can use my football manager terminology are designed to play three roles. Matt O’Reilly plays the attacking midfield, number 10 role. Reo Hatate, the box-to-box midfielder, who never stops running, pushing forward to get near the edge of the box. Finally, our skipper Callum McGregor playing a dual role of holding midfielder and that deep lying playmaker who controls the temp of the game, made famous by Andrea Pirlo.
The issue as we saw on Wednesday nights was that if McGregor has space in front of him, he will push on and any tackle or misplaced pass completely opens up the midfield and due to the highline of our full backs, usually means that the two centre backs have the whole line to cover against a counterattack.
While there are few teams in Scotland that have the pace and quality to punish us, against Europe’s elite, or indeed teams the quality of RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk, they will punish us. So a slight tweak is required. Either we restrict the movement of our full backs, a move I don’t think Ange will even consider, or we change the personnel and systems in the midfield.
Replacing O’Reilly with Oliver Abildgaard and moving him into a defensive midfield position, would allow McGregor to be free to move into gaps without worrying about the break, it would also allow Reo Hatate to push further forward, with his engine, he is capable of still being able to track back even if higher forward.
While this would be tough for Matt O’Reilly, who has had a great season so far, it does open up further options later in the game, to bring him on against tiring opponents. Alternatively if Callum’s injury puts him out the next few games, we bring O’Reilly slightly deeper and have him create the tempo.
There is no need or desire to abandon Angeball in Europe, but a tweak of the system would give us more cover, now if we could start finishing our chances off then we’d be in business.