The pressure is off Wilfried Nancy as the Celtic manager earns his first win since arriving in Glasgow after beating Aberdeen.
Jimmy Thelin’s side were in great form ahead of their trip to Paradise but Celtic turned on the style to beat Aberdeen convincingly with a comfortable 3-1 scoreline.
Nancy knew that anything less than a victory meant that Celtic sack calls would have resumed this evening.
What changes would you make to the Celtic starting XI?
Celtic must have thought the roof was about to cave in after Benjamin Nygren’s opener was levelled in the 78th minute by 10-man Aberdeen but late strikes from Hoops veterans Kieran Tierney and James Forrest sealed the win.
But when the Celtic manager spoke pre-match, fans would have been worried that the Frenchman had lost the plot as he explained why he was sticking with his 3-4-3 system.
Wilfried Nancy claims Celtic system ‘worked well’ just before Aberdeen win
Before today’s visit to Celtic Park, the Dons had lost just one in their last 10 games so Nancy knew he was in for a tough game.
And when asked about his starting XI, the Celtic boss was adamant that despite losing to Dundee United on Wednesday, he stuck with the system because it is working.
Nancy told BBC Scotland, “It’s going to be the ninth game in 27 days or 28 days, so the idea is to bring a bit of freshness.
“It worked well [on Wednesday]. We had many opportunities to score, we defended really well. After that, we conceded two goals on set-pieces.
“The idea is to be consistent and to find ways to score goals and find ways to defend the set-piece a little bit better.
“Every game we want to win, it doesn’t change. I focus on the pitch, this is the most important.”
The Celtic stat that shows Wilfried Nancy might be on to something
Nancy has had plenty of criticism for the team’s performances over the last four games prior to Celtic’s win over Aberdeen.
But a big stat from Fotmob shows the Hoops boss could well be onto something.
Celtic’s xG was an impressive 4.53 considering the slim winning margin as the Bhoys limited Aberdeen to 0.36.
Here is the xG in Nancy’s previous three fixtures (excluding Roma):
- Dundee United: 3.51
- St Mirren: 1.34
- Hearts: 1.86
Nancy’s Celtic are showing clear attacking intent, and if the Frenchman had a proper first team striker, who knows how the start to his tenure could have really gone.
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