A Glimpse of McCarthy
It has been a frustrating start to Celtic life for James McCarthy. Injury and illness have limited him to just over 400 minutes of action.
Sunday saw his first 90 minutes for his childhood heroes, against Aberdeen. It was an odd changing of the guard, with Scott Brown patrolling the same zone for the visitors.
What did we learn?
Passing / Creativity
When McGregor plays as the deeper of the midfield three, he is very much a ball magnet, averaging 83 possessions per 90m. McCarthy had 77 but in his overall minutes so far is averaging higher at 88, which surprised me.
He doesn’t get on the ball as much as McGregor at 6, and completed 64 passes @ 88%.
8 of his passes were Pack passes taking opponents out the game, which is consistent with McGregor (9) and Turnbull (8). He achieved the rare feat of taking the whole Aberdeen team out with one pass on the move that led to the winner. Abada’s shot was saved but the resulting clearance flew in off McGregor’s right leg.
Indeed, all three had similar xA values around 0.35. Turnbull created 5 chances to 2 from McGregor (1 assist) and 1 from McCarthy.
It is odd so far that McCarthy seems to be a relatively conservative passer yet produces the odd extreme line breaker, and then gives the ball away more than any other player in the squad (11.09 missed open plan passes per 90m).
Goal Threat
A very short paragraph.
As you might expect from someone with 29 career goals and none in the last 4 seasons.
He did have one possession in the box but otherwise 0 shots.
Also, 0 Pack Pass receipts.
Defending
McCarthy led the team with 6 successful challenges / interceptions. His Defensive Action Success Rate of 75% was also the highest on the day.
17 recoveries (think “right time, right place”) was only 1 behind Welsh and 2nd highest.
He was only taken out by forward passes 6 times (packed) compared to 16 for McGregor and 21 for Turnbull.
In this early part of his Celtic career, he looks like a player who will lead the squad in challenges won (2.83 tackles won outright is leading the squad with Christie on 1.99!).
Summary
As always, I’ll revisit around the 900 minutes completed mark. But, as McCarthy is not a player I am very familiar with I was curious as to his overall style and strengths.
I remain sceptical he was a Postecoglou signing as he lacks the physical characteristics to play in a high energy / high pressing defensive system.
On this showing there are signs he’ll certainly add midfield steel and has a wider range of passing than I imagined. That mix of silk and steel would have raised a comment from Bertie Auld, for sure.
Whether the returning Bitton or Rogic replaces him, we’ll see as Thursday is a big game.