Martin O’Neill is at a crossroads, either change tactics or watch Celtic’s season go down the drain, and that needs to start next Sunday

Well, I did say it was time to deploy a 3-5-2.

I said it on Wednesday night after Perth, and I’ll say it again tonight, because nothing has changed apart from the scoreline.

3-0.

At Ibrox, in a cup quarter final, with not a single one of our own in the ground to see it.

Today was the day that Martin O’Neill should have gone with the courage of his convictions.

Today was the day to rip the formation up and start again.

He didn’t.

And we are out.

Is anybody actually surprised?

Starting Sebastian Tounekti again today was a recipe for disaster, and everybody outside Lennoxtown saw it coming

I wrote about Tounekti four days ago and I take no pleasure at all in repeating myself.

The boy has had a year to come good.

He still has no final ball in him, and he still has no end product once he gets anywhere near the box, and that’s being kind about it.

With Hyun-Jun Yang away doing his bit at the Asian Games, we had nobody on that left hand side capable of hurting anyone.

So what did we do?

We picked the same shape, with the same personnel, in the biggest domestic game of the season so far.

And we got exactly what that deserved.

Derek McInnes went with the courage of his convictions today, and that is the difference between the dugouts

He effectively ran a 4-4-2 out there this afternoon.

He looked at what he had, he looked at what we do, and he set his side up to take advantage of it.

It worked for him.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that it didn’t – credit where credit is due.

Whether Del Boy is any good over the course of a full season is still an open question for me, of course.

But he made a decision today and he was rewarded for it.

Can anyone tell me the last time our manager made one?

Martin made no decision at all.

How many more of these do we have to sit through before somebody admits 4-3-3 does not work?

We have spent north of £30million since the end of last season.

And we still cannot get a cross into the box for Kasper Høgh.

Just imagine Høgh and Camilo Duran up there together, with two wide men whose actual job is to deliver something to them.

A man can dream, as I said last week.

Instead we get the same shape every week, regardless of the opposition, regardless of who is available and regardless of what the previous ninety minutes just told us.

Celtic seem unadaptable to change of any kind.

And the tactical inflexibility is far and away the most infuriating part of it for me at the minute.

Because it is the one thing at our club that would cost absolutely nothing to fix.

Not a penny.

So why will nobody do it?

Hugh Keevins had his say in the Record this morning, and I told you on Friday that he would.

Here is what he had to say about the state of our club:

“Domestic domination, however, always acts like cosmetic surgery on the face of the club.

“That’s because fans will ultimately tolerate European inadequacy so long as they can appreciate the beauty of localised bragging rights.”

Hard as it is for me to type, he isn’t wrong.

And who among us could argue with it tonight?

Six failures to reach the Champions League proper, all of it papered over by winning things at home.

But the cosmetic surgery only holds as long as we keep winning at home.

A Scottish Cup Final handed to Aberdeen, a League Cup Final handed to St Mirren, and now out of that same tournament at the quarter final stage.

Three cup exits in fifteen months for the richest club in the country.

The face is starting to slip, and the board are going to have to look in the mirror sooner or later, whether they fancy what they see or not.

Ferencvaros on Thursday, the same side again next Sunday, and Martin is standing at a crossroads tonight

Either he changes the formation and the personnel for next weekend, or he watches this season go down the drain in real time.

There is no third option available here.

And please, nobody come to me with the idea that all of this is down to the absence of Yang.

If one winger being at the Asian Games is the difference between competing and being beaten 3-0, then that £30million was spent very badly indeed.

That particular conversation is one for the board, though, and not for the manager.

The shape is on Martin.

The team sheet is on Martin.

I’ve backed him since the day he walked back through that door, and I’ll back him again the second he shows me he is willing to change something.

Anything.

Next Sunday is the day to do it.

You already know what happens if he doesn’t.

Because if we go out there next weekend in a 4-3-3, with Tounekti on the left, against a side that has just put three past us, we will lose again.

It’s that simple.

Choose Read Celtic as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.