Elena Sadiku’s Celtic: Pioneering excellence in pursuit of the SWPL title – tactical analysis

In January 2024, Elena Sadiku took over as new Celtic manager following Fran Alonso’s departure to the NWSL for the Houston Dash.

As things stand, Elena Sadiku has Celtic on the verge of winning their first league title in their history; with only two games left to go, they are level on points but ahead on goal difference to cross-city rivals Rangers.

Elena Sadiku’s playing career was cut short at the age of 24, having suffered recurring injuries. However, since then, she has embarked on her managerial career. She started as an assistant manager in China for Beijing BG Phoenix before becoming current Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall’s assistant manager at Rosengard. A short stint as head coach for Eskilstuna United was followed by a role as U21 head coach at Everton. This held her in good stead to be offered the Celtic job.

In this tactical analysis, we will provide some analysis of the key tactics that have helped Celtic succeed under Sadiku. The scout report will look at the formation, in and out-of-possession principles, and approach to transitional elements that have held Celtic in good stead so far this season.

Formation

For the majority of the season under Alonso, Celtic almost exclusively used a 3-5-2 formation. However, when Sadiku came in, they used a wider range of different formations, such as trialling a 4-2-3-1 for her first game, moving towards a 3-4-3 shape, and reverting back to a 3-5-2 for their 2-1 victory over Rangers in the old firm derby in March.

We have identified that Sadiku has made small adjustments to the shape, which impact the style of play they are able to create. Let’s look at how this has affected their ability to develop attacks. We will do this by comparing the number of positional attacks against the number of counterattacks that ended in shots.