Penalty box possession and shots from outside the area

You thought St Mirren were a hard watch?  Livingston won three and drew three of their last six games but did not manage the majority of possession in any of those outings.  Incredibly, they beat Dundee (by four goals), Dundee United and Aberdeen with an average of 39% possession.

If they dug in against the team at the bottom of the league, they will only leave their defensive third to have a shot on goal against the league leaders on Sunday (expect them to shoot on sight).

There will be no surprises.  High crosses into the box will be successfully defended.  There will be no space in front of goal, marking will be skintight, the defensive line will be straight.  The pitch will be terrible, passing and control will be difficult – if you have a ticket, please be forgiving.

If you needed a reason to be concerned more than Celtic’s historical results against Livi, their recent form is impressive.  Livingston have collected the joint second highest points total from their last five games, just two behind Celtic.

The first objective will be to get possession inside their box.  We have the players to make any defender nervous at making a rash challenge with a penalty on the line.  Shots from the edge of the area will be important.  A ricochet did us no harm against St Mirren, against a packed defence, another is very possible.

Teams who win leagues win games like this.  Three points for Celtic here will go a long way to achieving that objective.