Celtic’s Seven-Man Padlock – Excellent positional discipline | OneFootball

Para Handy takes a look at Celtic’s Seven-Man Padlock…

5th September 2026; The Marbill Coaches Stadium, Paisley, Scottish Premiership, St Mirren versus Celtic; Nikolas Agrafiotis of St Mirren shoots and scores from the penalty spot in the 22nd minute to make it 1-0 to St Mirren. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

There is a curious little statistic doing the rounds about Celtic this season. We are conceding an awful lot of shots…

The number is sufficiently large to make the usual suspects tut, shake their heads and announce that our defence is “a concern”. And, to be fair, when you see that Celtic have conceded 114 shots in seven competitive matches, the first reaction is probably to reach for the smelling salts.

But there is a small problem with that statistic.

Where are all these shots going?

Martin O’Neill, Manager of Celtic, arrives at the stadium before the Scottish Premiership match between St. Mirren and Celtic at St Mirren Park on September 05, 2026 (Photo by Zak Mauger/Getty Images)

There is a world of difference between a shot at goal and a shot on goal. And another considerable difference between a shot on goal and a genuine scoring opportunity. Celtic have conceded 54 shots in their five Premiership matches so far, but only 18 have been on target. That’s one in three. The European figures tell much the same story: plenty of attempts, but considerably fewer that actually trouble the goalkeeper.

So perhaps we should stop counting shots and start watching football.

Watch Celtic closely when an opponent gets sustained possession around the penalty area and something quite deliberate becomes apparent. There is often a back four stretched across the penalty area, with another three players forming a line immediately in front of them.

Four plus three. Seven Celtic players.

And they move. Not individually, and not in a mad rush towards whoever happens to have the ball, but laterally, almost as one organism. If the ball goes left, the seven shift left. If it is worked back across the pitch, they shuffle across with it. The gaps between the defenders are closed and, crucially, the spaces in front of them are occupied.

Liam Scales of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Scottish Premiership match between St. Mirren and Celtic at St Mirren Park on September 05, 2026. (Photo by Zak Mauger/Getty Images)

The opposition still has the ball. It can still pass it around. They can even have a shot. What it increasingly doesn’t have is a route to the Celtic goal.

A player twenty yards out sees a forest of Celtic shirts between himself and the goalkeeper. There is no inviting channel between centre-back and full-back; the central route is blocked and the wide route is squeezed. Eventually, he shoots.

The statistician writes ‘shot’.

The goalkeeper may be wondering why everybody is getting so excited.

The ball has gone into a defender’s backside. Or shin. Or boot. Or three rows into the stand. Yet somewhere later that evening somebody will announce that Celtic conceded twenty shots.

Aye. And how many goals – the CL match was a freak.

This is where I think the punters — and sometimes the press — are misled by modern football statistics. The number of shots is easy to count and easy to quote. It is much harder to quantify how difficult Celtic have made those shots.

Viljami Sinisalo of Celtic celebrates after the Scottish Premiership match between St. Mirren and Celtic at St Mirren Park on September 05, 2026. (Photo by Zak Mauger/Getty Images)

The experienced eye sees something else. It sees Celtic denying the shooting lanes, defenders protecting the spaces between each other rather than being dragged towards the ball, and midfielders doing the dirty work in front of the back four. The whole seven-man structure slides from side to side, patiently waiting for the opposition to make the mistake.

That is not accidental.

And it reminded me of something rather older than expected from modern football: catenaccio.

01.08.1962 Copyright: imago/Buzzi Trainer Helenio Herrera with Sandro Mazzola ; Serie A 1962/1963, Italian Liga, Internazionale

Before somebody starts writing to tell me that Martin O’Neill isn’t Helenio Herrera, I am perfectly aware of that. We don’t have a sweeper lurking behind the defence and a team of Italian internationals smoking cigarettes behind the dugout. But the principle has a familiar ring to it. The great Herrera teams were built around making space disappear.

That’s what I think is happening here.

Not “Everybody get behind the ball and hope for the best.” Rather: “You can have the ball. You can move it around. But we’re going to decide where you can actually play.”

And there is another reason I like what I’m seeing. It is remarkably economical. Defending does not always require somebody to sprint forty yards to make a tackle. Sometimes the best defensive action is to stand in exactly the right place and make the pass somebody wants to play impossible.

Call it positional discipline. Call it compactness. Call it defensive shape. Or, if you’re feeling particularly romantic, call it a wee bit of Herrera’s catenaccio.

01.08.1962. Photo: imago/Buzzi Trainer Helenio Herrera (Inter) am Ball; Vneg, hoch, Freisteller, Coach, Schuss, Schuß, schießen Serie A 1962/1963, 1. Italienische Liga, Internazionale, Saisonvorbereitung, Training Mailand Fußball Herren Mannschaft Italien Einzelbild Randmotiv Personen

The important thing is that Celtic are not necessarily conceding as many chances as the shot count suggests.

There are, of course, risks. If the seven-man block gets stretched, the whole thing can unravel. If somebody gets dragged out of position, the space behind him can suddenly become enormous. If the midfield line stops moving with the defence, the opposition can find the little pockets Celtic have spent all that time trying to close.

Colby Donovan crosses the ball during the Scottish Premiership match between St. Mirren and Celtic at St Mirren Park on September 05, 2026. (Photo by Zak Mauger/Getty Images)

But that doesn’t alter the basic observation: Celtic are allowing shots while denying shooting opportunities. Those are not the same thing.

Perhaps that is one of the less obvious changes Martin O’Neill has brought to Celtic. We have spent years wanting our defenders to be brave, aggressive and proactive. Now we may be watching something slightly different: a Celtic defence quite happy to let the opposition have a go, provided the attempt comes from somewhere Celtic are happy for it to come from.

There is nothing particularly glamorous about that. Nobody gets a standing ovation for shepherding an opponent into taking a hopeless shot from 22 yards. Nobody puts “excellent positional discipline” into a headline.

But it wins football matches.

So if Celtic finish another game having conceded fifteen or twenty shots, but the opposition goalkeeper has had considerably more work to do than ours, I know which statistic I’ll be watching.

The punters can have their shot count.

I’ll watch the seven shirts moving across the pitch.

Four behind. Three in front.

The Celtic padlock.

01.08.1962. Photo imago/Buzzi. Trainer Helenio Herrera (Inter), Coach Serie A 1962/1963

And somewhere in the distance, I suspect Helenio Herrera might just be having a wee smile.

Para Handy

HAVE YOUR SAY – Join the Celtic conversation in our comments section below…

Celtic Shorts is the new home for the team from The Celtic Star

NEW FROM CELTIC STAR BOOKS…Celtic in the Fifties by Matt Corr, in two volumes, available now…

Celtic in the Fifties by Matt Corr. Both Volumes out now. Order at celticstarbooks.com

Celtic in the Fifties by Matt Corr, in two volumes, both published on 4th September 2026 by Celtic Star Books. Click on image to order.

Quick Tip – Add Celticshorts.com as your ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the Celtic content you value the most. It takes just a few seconds and you’ll notice the difference straight away! – Click HERE….Hail Hail!

Click to join Celtic Pools