Historically, they have been the most “Wimbledon-esque” of opponents. That is, long ball and ultra-pragmatic football. Emphasis on safety first, defensive exits, and chaos-maximising penalty box mayhem. Given their resources, that is entirely rational.

However, whilst they can still mix it with the best of them, manager David Martindale has been fostering a more progressive, passing-based style of play as his side worked their way back to the Premier division, admirably via the play-offs.

Whilst a 12^th position, 17 goals in 17 matches, and 32 conceded, suggests less than mixed results, the Speedboat League suggests 10^th position, and safety, is how they have been performing.

Has the Variance Monster been feasting?

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Losing four matches on the bounce is a new experience for most of them, and certainly not whilst at Celtic.

Confidence must be low, and chatter about player unrest with Wilfried Nancy and the new coaching team persists.

They really could catch a break. Which would be more likely, could the players maintain the intent to stick to the game plan for something close to 90 minutes? Losing faith, resorting to hoof ball, and ill-discipline have plagued Nancy’s short tenure.

The Dons come to Glasgow feeling reasonably good about themselves. Early season form had questions being asked about Jimmy Thelin’s future. After strong backing in the summer, that seemed fair enough given their run of form has stretched back most of 2025, much like Celtic’s, punctuated by that unexpected Scottish Cup Final triumph.

Seven of the last ten league matches have been won, with two draws and one defeat, 1-2 at home to Hibernian.

A terrible European campaign ended on Thursday with another defeat, 0-3 in Prague. They finished second bottom of the Europa Conference League with two points. 14 goals conceded in six ties. It has been a desperately poor season in Europe for Scottish clubs.

That defeat to Sparta saw Aberdeen set up in a mirror to Nancy’s 3-4-2-1. We’ve seen Heart of Midlothian and Dundee United match up Celtic man for man over the last two weeks. Gian Piero Gasparini’s AS Roma suffocated the Celts in the Europa League with an intense man-to-man full-court press – a top coach with a high-quality group of players was overwhelming for this Celtic group.

So, can we expect something similar?

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He has stepped up, bringing joy and calm to a very negative situation, and deserves every credit. This has been an incredible and unlikely story to the season, which is already proving remarkable on many levels.

Equally, the club needs to achieve stability, cohesion, and consistency. A new permanent manager can bring that. There is still so much to play for.

After three very tough road trips, and three wins despite being second by xG in every one, can Celtic’s positive variance hold for O’Neill’s presumed farewell?

The opponents, Dundee, are off the back of a 3-1 victory over St Mirren and sit 9^th in the standings, four points clear of the bottom.

Having the worst goal difference (-13) in the league is a portent of things to come when we assess their underlying performance data.

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That being said, a planned Fan Collective demo outside the boardroom at 7 pm may continue to heighten the tension.

Meanwhile, daft old uncle Martin and earnest wee nephew Shaun may be the settling influence this frazzled squad needs to navigate a season threatening to come off the rails.

I would not expect a major change in set-up or shape from Celtic this evening – but as a minimum, there is hopefully a reset on who is “out” and “in” favour, and all get a fair crack at it.

But what of the opponents?

Falkirk are one of the more interesting sides in the league, both in terms of squad and playing style.

John McGlynn galvanised them to two promotions, and many of the group that achieved this are still in the starting eleven. Only two new signings were made permanently in the summer – Scott Bain on a free and 38-year-old Brian Graham from Partick Thistle.

However, following the model successful at Ross County for many seasons, McGlynn has utilised the English loan market effectively. Seven younger players have enhanced the squad. In particular, Kyrell Wilson (Swansea City) and Ethan Williams (Manchester United) are adding dynamism to the attacking third. Henry Cartwright (Leicester City) has added some bite to a midfield high on footballing intelligence but perhaps low on dig.

A slow start has suddenly blossomed with one defeat (to high-flying Heart of Midlothian) in five matches. Come from behind seems to be the norm. Two wins and three draws have been retrieved from losing positions. The Bairns have achieved better results, and arguably better performances, in their last three matches against The Rangers, Motherwell and Dundee, than Celtic.

Let’s run the rule.

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Sometimes you just need to help yourself.

The defeat at Dens Park was a tough watch. More galling still is the fact that this is the current reality. We are back in a virtual lockdown. It’s 2020-21 all over again.

Players want to leave and cannot. The manager is struggling but will be expected to muddle along. Under pressure (or malaise), decision-making is poor. And, in some cases, there isn’t the quality required. Some are simply getting older and declining as nature intends.

When you do a job well, you deserve credit. Steven Pressley and his team certainly do. Easily the worst team in the league based on performance in the opening seven matches; a rigid 5-4-1 low block; pressure applied in the mid third; zonal discipline, both horizontal and vertical; excellence in dead-ball organisation; and a potent counterattack led by Cameron Congreve were all delivered almost flawlessly.

Yet, as Kieron Maguire gleefully reported on X, Celtic should be doing better.

And Celtic deserve that. After years of success, of course, there will be pent-up kickings to be administered. That’s football.

Despite all this, there are some basic tactical tweaks Celtic could have enacted to compensate, especially in the first half when the game was effectively lost.

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Celtic return to SPFL action at Dens Park at the weekend.

Key clashes follow across the Europa League, League Cup and league as Celtic look to build momentum in three competitions.

The Dundee clash, against the division’s second-bottom club, fresh off a 0-4 humping from the basement side Aberdeen, may be the loosener back into action this squad needs.

Given frailties in chance creation, and with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel under scrutiny, I suspect it is not as straightforward as that.

The international break and the need to get a special interview out on a podcast mean no Extra Time this week, including the opposition analysis section.

Let’s take a closer look at Steven Pressley’s charges.

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Especially when considering the opponent in question, David Gray’s rather fascinating Hibernian side.

Season So Far

The Edinburgh club endured, ultimately, a disappointing Autumn campaign trying to qualify for the UEFA Europa League and then the Conference League. In that sense, they are no different from nearly all clubs in Scotland outside the two Glasgow giants in falling at the qualification hurdle.

And it was classic Hibee stylee in that solid away performances were undone by spectacular ”Hibsing” it at home – shorthand for bolloxing it up from a promising position.

A credible draw away to data darlings FC Midtjylland was followed by a last-minute losing goal to set up a shot at the third UEFA level competition.

A 2-0 win in Belgrade (yip, can be done) gave way to an agonising 2-3 loss to ten-man Partizan, but Hibernian saw it out with a 100th-minute Chris Cadden goal.

Despite losing 1-2 at home to Legia Warsaw in the play-off round, they went 3-1 up in Poland before being dragged into extra time in the third minute of added time and then losing to an extra-time goal. You couldn’t script it.

At home, a series of draws, very much the feature of this SPFL campaign, were punctuated by a 2-1 win at Dundee. Unbeaten but already six points off the Celts and Bloomin’ Hearts.

The League Cup exit to The Rangers was meek but had the bonus of gaining under-fire box Russell Martin a few days’ grace.

Performances trumped outcomes overall, but the last two outings away at Ibrox and then Falkirk on Tuesday night saw slightly worrying dips in that too.

So, what to make?

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Celtic faces four home and four away ties. The order and dates of those ties will be decided by Sunday, but mainly the matches will be on Thursday’s necessitating several league matches moving to Sunday.

Here are some pen pics of ourselves and the opponents.

Celtic FC - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

AS Roma - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

Feyenoord Rotterdam - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

SC Braga - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

SK Sturm Graz - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

FC Midtjylland - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

Red Star Belgrade - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

FC Utrecht - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

Bologna FC 1909 - Transfers 25/26 | Transfermarkt

More detailed tactical and team style analysis will be available before each match.

Here are the comparisons based on the ELO club rankings.

It seems a fair draw, but with no absolute monster and no really easy games either. Every game should be competitive.

What do we think of the draw? Let us know in the comments.

We spent a good chunk of time during the summer discussing the Kieran Tierney “butterfly effect”. That is, with the return of the athletic, marauding left full-back, what impact will this have on the shape and roles within the team?

The starting point was the notion that under Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers, Celtic generally attacked in a 4-6 split.

Meaning, the two centre-backs, Callum McGregor and one of the full-backs inverting, would form a four-man rest defence. That is, they are not sitting in their deck chairs smoking tabs; they are positioned as the rest of the team outside those attacking.

These are general guidelines, by the way, not precise configurations to be evidenced during every Celtic attack. Football is fluid, and despite the proliferation of positional play, there remains freedom for players to find spaces within tactical frameworks.

In the last four seasons, that inverted full-back would normally have been Greg Taylor.

Hence the discussion on the pod.

Leaving 32-year-old McGregor to patrol midfield spaces on his own seems unwise.

Would one of the attacking full-backs – Alistair Johnston or Tierney – be asked to curb their attacking instincts to fill in when Celtic pour forwards? Unlikely.

Would one of Paolo Bernardo, Arne Engels or Reo Hatate be more of a double midfield pivot with McGregor and hold back in possession? Seemed more likely.

As I pointed out in the inaugural Tictical Breakdown, against Aberdeen in particular, Celtic seemed exposed to the counterattack on numerous occasions in the first half when the Dons set up in a midblock but with four players always ready to spring forward. Poor execution and/or decision-making resulted in numerous opportunities being squandered. That will not happen at the Champions League level.

So, how did Celtic set up in reality?

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I’ve been sceptical of Jimmy Thelin and what he is bringing to Aberdeen tactically. Generally, I don’t really see an identity or a coherent approach. None of that is necessary if you are continually winning football matches with an adaptive approach. But they are not. The Scottish Cup final penalty success was an outlier, given the team's five wins and seven draws in 29 league matches. Only one of those was against a top-six side – a 1-0 win versus Hibernian in April. That is relegation form.

However, I will credit him with a sensible approach to the matchup with Celtic last weekend.

Thelin set up his side in what I’ll call a Six-Four split. The four defenders, plus Graeme Shinnie and Sivert Heltne Nilsen, basically sat in as a defensive block. The other four were the counterattacking spring. The Dons set up in a midblock and pressed aggressively whenever a Celtic player received the ball with back to goal. Shinnie and Nilsen would man-mark the Celtic eights Reo Hatate and Benjamin Nygren when they came into their area; otherwise, it was a zonal configuration.

This shows how compact they were, and how the four nominal attacking players set up in a line waiting to break.

Aberdeen would not press Celtic in their half, waiting for them to cross the halfway line. Also, they tried not to drop too deep, maintaining a midblock.

Once the ball was recovered, Aberdeen would try and break with the four forwards – Adil Aouchiche, Nicolas Milanovic, Topi Keskinen and Kusini Yengi. They, sensibly, did not expect Shinnie and Nilsen to try and be box-to-box midfielders.

As we will see, with the way Celtic are now set up in rest defence, this was a thoughtful approach, in theory.

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