Greg Taylor

Nobody in Celtic jersey was outstanding yesterday, let’s be honest.

 

Him and Calmac were the best of a bad bunch yesterday.
I hope the guy moves on in the summer and does well at his new team, he is a hard working honest player but not quite good enough to stay here.

 

Laid out in black and white . Anybody who has played football at any half decent level will tell you the full back should at least be making an effort to go and stop the cross. Schmeichel is the one to blame more than anyone however. Followed by Bernardo who put us on the back foot with a shocking attempted pass.

 

Watch the video back in slow moton, he actually starts to go but is scanning and realises that their 28 would be free in our box and stops. He scans several times in that sequence of play and makes the right decision. If he goes, as you want (red arrow), there's a pass on to their 28 unmarked in our box (blue arrow), leaving AJ, CCV and Scales to defend a 3v5! That would be a much more dangerous position than the cross.

 

The immediate threat is the boy with the ball. That’s why he should have went to try and block it. He didn’t.

 

I'm with Random on this one.

He's not stopping the cross anyway so why bother engaging the winger

 

What is more dangerous: a cross to defend or a 3v5 in our box?

 

Watch it in slow motion. You can actually see him start to go out to engage the winger and he's scanning at the same time, sees where their 28 is and stops. It's no mystery why he didn't go. You can see his thought process and he was right.

 

I was half joking mate. He doesn't stop crosses so no point in trying.

A left back should be aware of the overload and get out and stop that ball getting into the box by any means necessary. Take the player out if need be. I have no faith that Taylor is capable of that.

 

No idea why you're willfully ignoring the fact pointed out to you that he's trying to cover 2 players due to zero support. But then you've always been a bit selective on which facts you want to acknowledge so not entirely shocked.

 

He is aware of the overload; but I don't think many FBs are capable of doing what you're asking of Taylor there. Maybe some of the fastest, elite ones, but not most FBs and certainly not Taylor. I think it's a bit harsh to blame Taylor for that.

The problem is the midfield. If Yang doesn't start quite so narrow and if he is quicker to get out to the winger, he puts pressure on the cross. More importantly, look at where McGregor immediately drops back to. That's what the other midfielders should have done too. If Bernardo drops back to roughly level with McGregor, their 28 is not all alone in our box and Taylor is free to go out and block the cross.

 

Ideally Taylor goes to the ball and one of the three behind their 28 gets closer to the 28.

I'd have to watch it back again, but I wonder if Taylor was caught unsure if the 28 was to be covered or not.
But either way, he should be closing that ball down.
He's the fullback, fundamentally the danger is in his area of the pitch. What happens behind him is on the rest of the team.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

 

The Aberdeen goal wasn’t Taylor’s fault in the slightest. Yang was standing in no man’s land and you can see Taylor pointing to tell Yang to get out to their winger quicker because Taylor had to deal with the player going into our box. But the goal isn’t Yang’s fault either. It’s an absolute howler from Schmeichel, plain and simple. Schmeichel cost us the goal with a weakness of his that was highlighted before he signed, namely not getting down to ground quickly any more hence why the ball went under him. That’s the risk you take signing an older player as there will be a decline in their game, and it eventually cost us despite Schmeichel’s great contribution this season.

 

It doesn't really work that way in the modern game, mate. Everything is much more flexible and situation dependent nowadays. Quite often it's the winger who is tasked with stopping the cross. I've seen Maeda, Kühn and Forrest all doing it quite a lot and the fact that Yang doesn't really is one of his main weaknesses IMO. In fact, I think I remember Yang getting criticism for not doing this in a derby game, leading to a goal for the Huns.

As Minty says, Yang is in 'no man's land' and Taylor signals to him twice to pick up a man or an important space (once to occupy the space around the 28 in the lead up to the move and once to close down the winger when the ball goes out to him). It is worth watching it back again, mate. If you watch it in slow motion, it's very clear that Taylor realises that Yang hasn't picked up the winger and clearly goes to close the winger down. Good defenders scan while the ball is moving and Taylor manages to scan twice (once when the ball is travelling out to the 18 and again just after it leaves the 18's foot on its way to the winger) and sees that no one has dropped back to pick up the 28 and then he very clearly stops. This was the correct decision.

It's worth noting that if Yang does his job properly, the winger either won't cross or will have to cross under pressure from a less favourable angle. Even with Yang's mistake, it might have been OK if Bernardo had done his job properly. Watch how Callum McGregor drops back in front of the backline when the ball goes wide. Bernardo and McCowan should do that too and they don't. If they do, Bernardo naturally picks up the 28, allowing Taylor to close down the winger and McCowan turns the 3v4 in our box into a 4v4 even if the cross comes in.

We can definitely argue over how much of the blame should go to Yang, Bernardo, McCowan and Schmeichel (as I said above, I'm personally inclined to cut Schmeichel more slack as at least his was an honest mistake rather than just not doing his job like the other 3, but YYMV); but I genuinely don't think there's any way to read this move that makes it Taylor's fault.

 

ADDING after I have typed most of this, none of this is with an argumentative tone, purely a how I see it thing. Forgive the over use of stills to explain my view of it. I do appreciate the other guys views and understand that there is defence for Taylor and I, in no way, making this post to be argumentative or anything. Simply a view point on the goal.


Watching it back a few times now @Random Review and I do agree, I don't think Taylor has been (trying to find the best words to describe) * in this move, but he could have done better. He's absolutely reading the game better than others, he's aware of the situation and he is doing the best he can, while others are sleeping on the job. But, and I don't mean this too harshly, he could/should have done better once he knew others were selling him short.




This is the point that they win the ball back off Forrest and the first moment Taylor instantly (and rightly, credit is good) scans for where the opponents are. He spots Yang at this stage more infield (only just) than himself and he must surely know as much as we do, Yang isn't likely to cover/help here. Should be noted that as much as we can be critical of Yang here, Bernardo and McGregor are just as poor in helping Taylor and/or covering their opponents.



This is the second scan Taylor does, clearly aware more of whats happening and that his teammates are letting him down - for clarity, Taylor is the best player in this transition that's happened, he's the only one taking any sort of leadership and seeing what is about to unfold. The arm is raising, clearly to highlight to someone (likely Yang) that he needs help covering wide, but at this point, Yang, Bernardo and McGregor have all gotten closer together in the middle of the field.
At this stage, for me, Taylor needs to realise (not due to his fualt, but the others) that the winger is free for a pass and that 100% this is the direction of play now. Taylor at this stage needs to make that decision that he is going to have to get tighter to the winger now. Number 28 needs to be now covered by one of Bernardo or CalMac - neither of them do and they all should take blame here too.



Little moment further, the signal from the aberdeen player in front of Taylor is for the ball to go wide. He can see this (at least in peripheral). 28 is about to come further inside. Taylor at this stage, even more than a moment before can seeall other teammates are coming centrally, again at this stage he needs to realise - rightly or wrongly - he is the one who needs to go to the winger.



At this stage, Taylor is seen to stop making his move to the winger, he's caught in two minds and understandably so. He's tried to get Yang to cover, who hasn't, but the pass is now on to the winger and as much as I can appreciate he's done his best to try organise the situation, again he needs to realise Yang is completely out of the picture now. Yang isn't turning to get to the winger, Taylor needs to start closing the winger down and closing that pass off. He wouldn't make an interception, but he would be tighter to the winger as he receives the ball.



Winger receives the ball here and Taylor is on the edge of the box, he continues a sidways run anticipating the cross and then makes the jump to attempt a block, but that distance between him and the attacker is massive, the jump and attempt at the block is next to useless.


The point of the cross, the attacker has came inside, closing the distance by nearly half of what it was previous still. Had taylor move towards the attacker at a similar pace, he would be a yard from him and that block is a higher chance of success.
Should be noted, Bernardo, Calmac and even Scales and most certainly Yang, have all completely ignored 28 and let him run in to that space to. Scales gets a free pass from me as he is needing to be central for sure in relation to 11 and 14 in the box. But Cal Mac and Bernardo in this whole sequence have been utterly useless.

Blame should go to CalMac and Bernardo more than anything, as they have let down the entire defensive line here and provided no support or pressure on to the opponents. They've all actually sold Taylor short.
But I still can't wipe Taylor of any blame either, there is multiple times that he must realise that he is the only one in a position to have to close down the winger. What would then happen if another aberdeen player foud space, that is where Bernardo and CalMac (and Yang) should be giving support, but they all done next to * all in this play.

Blame goes to CalMac, Bernardo, Yang - but that doesn't wipe Taylor of some blame too. He needed to act on what he was watching unfold, as much as he tried to organise things, he needed then to take control.

 

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm still going to disagree with you here. I think the TL;DR of where we disagree is that you see the cross as the greater danger, whereas I see leaving an Aberdeen attacker unmarked in our box as the greater danger.

OK, a more detailed response.

Picture 1: "Should be noted that as much as we can be critical of Yang here, Bernardo and McGregor are just as poor in helping Taylor and/or covering their opponents."

With you on Bernardo but not McGregor. CM would literally have to cross Bernardo's path to get to the 28. It's on Bernardo, not CM.


Picture 2 "At this stage, for me, Taylor needs to realise (not due to his fualt, but the others) that the winger is free for a pass and that 100% this is the direction of play now. Taylor at this stage needs to make that decision that he is going to have to get tighter to the winger now."

If Taylor does what you say, he either leaves a huge area in the half-space between himself and Scales or (more likely) Scales moves over to compensate and the entire back 4 gets stretched. The ball is central and the back 4 need to not get stretched, so Taylor does the right thing here.

Picture 4: "At this stage, Taylor is seen to stop making his move to the winger, he's caught in two minds and understandably so. He's tried to get Yang to cover, who hasn't, but the pass is now on to the winger and as much as I can appreciate he's done his best to try organise the situation, again he needs to realise Yang is completely out of the picture now. Yang isn't turning to get to the winger, Taylor needs to start closing the winger down and closing that pass off. He wouldn't make an interception, but he would be tighter to the winger as he receives the ball."

I don't think he's caught in two minds, mate. I think he's realised that he simply has to stop because no one has dropped back to pick up the 28. The important thing to realise here is that Taylor is right about this. Continuing to close down the winger would have been a bad mistake, because the 28 unmarked in the box is much more dangerous than a cross that Scales and CCV will deal with 9 times out of 10. So he's been let down twice here. First by Yang and then, when he starts to deal with Yang's mistake, by Bernardo. He does the best he can to split the distance. This is the thing we disagree on most strongly: in my opinion, an unmarked attacker with the ball in our box is more dangerous than a cross.

Picture 5: "the jump and attempt at the block is next to useless."

FWIW, I don't think what Taylor does here is about blocking the cross, he knows he can't. I think it's about blocking certain angles, which makes the cross more predictable for CCV and Scales. We'll never know, but that's my reading of it.

Picture 6: "Should be noted, Bernardo, Calmac and even Scales and most certainly Yang, have all completely ignored 28 and let him run in to that space to."

From their starting positions, McGregor drops back to protect an important space in the box. In your picture, you can clearly see that if Bernardo does the same, he picks up the 28. It's on Bernardo.

"Scales gets a free pass from me as he is needing to be central for sure in relation to 11 and 14 in the box."

Yes, Scales has to stay central for exactly the reason you say (in fact, you can see him turn and move more central at this point). Note that McCowan is as bad as Bernardo in this move and leaves AJ, Scales and CCV defending a 3v4 in our box, which is another reason Scales and Taylor have to stay narrow. McCowan and Bernardo were both as bad as Yang here. I still disagree about CM, who I think is where he should be.

And all this, actually, is another reason Taylor had to stay relatively central. If the 28 receives the ball unmarked in the box, that automatically drags Scales over and, because McCowan didn't track back, that in turn would leave AJ and CCV defending a 2v4 around the penalty spot, which can't be allowed.

All in all, I genuinely think Taylor did about as well as he could have and the blame lies with Bernardo, Yang and McCowan (and Schmeichel's error).

 

The goal all came from Bernardo for the millionth time refusing to try and turn on the ball and play forward and inexplicably passing it straight to an Aberdeen player when trying to play a simple 5 yard pass. It’s the sort of thing Hatate got slaughtered for on here.

That’s why we were so short in the box most of our team were ahead of the ball and it was turned over so cheaply it left us exposed. The cross in was decent but Schmeichel just made a mess of it and totally misjudged it.

 

Aye fair comment, cheaply giving the ball away was the start of it. Then as @Random Review points out the midfield/Yang were not active enough in getting back to protect the box.

All of the above absolved GT for me as he's leaving danger no matter what he decides to do, but even then Kasper is ultimately to blame for knocking it in. Understand he's trying to scoop it away from danger but bottom line is he made an * of it.

 

Keep him