Sports
Nancy must drop 4/10 flop who cost Celtic the trophy
Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy has become the first manager in the club’s history to lose his first three competitive matches in the dugout after Sunday’s dismal defeat at Hampden Park.
The French boss watched his side lose 3-1 to St Mirren in the final of the League Cup, just days after his team were beaten 3-0 by Roma in the Europa League, which came after a 2-1 loss to Hearts last weekend in the Scottish Premiership.
It has simply been a nightmare start to life at Parkhead for the new manager, who now must make some big decisions to turn the tide and get supporters to believe in his suitability for the Hoops moving forward.
The key changes Nancy needs to make at Celtic
The elephant in the room is the new system that is being deployed. A 3-4-2-1 base formation has been immediately implemented by the new manager, and clearly, given the results, it has not worked.
Celtic played a 4-3-3 under Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers and a 4-2-3-1 under Martin O’Neill. The squad is, therefore, suited and built for a system with three midfielders and a traditional back four.
Nancy, at least until he can make changes to the squad, should move to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 so that the players can go back to what they know to turn results around in the short-term.
As part of that change, Liam Scales should be dropped from the side to facilitate having a right and left-footed balance at the back, with another centre-back brought in to partner Auston Trusty, whether that is Jahmai Simpson-Pusey or Dane Murray.
The Irishman scored an own goal against Roma on Thursday night and was caught out under the flight of the ball for Jonah Ayunga’s first goal on Sunday, which is why he should be the one to drop out of the defence.
On top of dropping Scales and changing the formation, Nancy should also ruthlessly drop Kasper Schmeichel, who cost Celtic the trophy against St Mirren.
Why Kasper Schmeichel must be dropped
The Denmark international has been the number one at Parkhead since his move to the club in the summer of 2024, but his time as the first-choice could be coming to an end after a dismal showing at Hampden.
He was even worse than Scales in the 3-1 loss because his involvement in all three of the goals conceded left plenty to be desired, whilst the centre-back was only partially to blame for one of the goals let in.
The goal that Scales was caught out for, though, was also arguably Schmeichel’s worst moment of the game, as he came flying off his line and got caught in no man’s land, failing to get to the ball or make a good enough attempt to save the shot.
On top of the error in the clip above, the Danish goalkeeper also seemed very slow to get down to the first goal, which seemed to hit the back of the net in slow motion, and got a hand to the third goal without keeping it out of the back of the net.
Schmeichel, who was given a 4/10 player rating by GlasgowWorld, cost the Hoops the trophy because of his dismal performance and culpability for all three goals. At best, he could be spared of blame for the third goal, as it was a free shot in the box, but even then, it would, in theory, have been 1-1 and a different game if he had not failed to keep out the first two goals.
If Celtic’s goalkeeper had been a bit sharper off his line and to get down to shots, Nancy may have ended up winning his first trophy for the club and avoided a complete nightmare.
|
Schmeichel (25/26) |
Premiership |
Europa League |
|---|---|---|
|
Appearances |
15 |
6 |
|
Goals conceded |
11 |
11 |
|
Clean sheets |
9 |
0 |
|
Goals prevented |
-1.51 |
-1.58 |
|
Error led to goal |
0 |
1 |
As you can see in the table above, the former Leicester star has also underperformed as a shot-stopper in the Premiership and the Europa League this season, letting in roughly three more goals than expected based on the xG against him.
This is why Schmeichel’s dismal cup final performance should be the last straw for the manager to justify dropping him from the side to provide Viljami Sinisalo with an opportunity on Wednesday night.
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