A tactical disaster-class at Celtic Park leaves everyone scratching their heads, including Martin O’Neill…
Last night proved we are on a downward spiral, with little hope of pulling out of it any time soon...
Eric Knott 
Celtic's Finnish goalkeeper #01 Viljami Sinisalo dives but concedes a third goal during the UEFA Europa League, League phase football match between Celtic and Ferencvaros at Celtic Park in Glasgow on September 17, 2026. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP via Getty Images)
I have no idea what that was at Celtic Park last night, in fact, I’m still trying to figure it out this morning.
Martin O’Neill decided to make changes, which before kick off looked positive.
Even for the first ten minutes of the game it looked positive.
But once that opening period had passed, Celtic Park just descended into disorganised chaos.
On the park of course, not in the stands.
In the stands, the opening positivity quickly turned to confusion, and finally total bewilderment.
I think after last night, it’s fair to say we’re unravelling at breakneck speed.
The wheels are coming off, and I’ve got no doubt that Derek McInnes watched that last night and thought to himself that Sunday will be a stroll in the park for his already buoyant Ibrox side.
Where to start with this shambles?
Well, the midfield was once again overrun with alarming ease.
Callum McGregor cut a dejected and isolated figure last night, and it’s becoming clear he certainly isn’t the answer to our midfield conundrum.
Doubtless he will continue to be made to be the answer, and if last night was anything to go by, that is only going to spell trouble going forward.
I can safely say I am dreading the visit of the Ibrox side on Sunday now.
Right now, I have two overriding feelings.
The first one is that this particular management team is now headed the same direction as Wilfried Nancy’s.
I’m starting to feel the same way I did when watching Nancy’s style of play at Celtic last season
The second is that I feel like this season is starting to unravel like the Covid season.
And if I’m being honest, I can’t seem to figure out how we stop it from unravelling.
Our midfield is inept.
And that is not going to change between now and January.
Martin O’Neill has proved to us last night that he doesn’t have the answers to this either.
He tried 4-2-3-1 as the starting formation.
It seemed to work for a short while, and then Ferencvaros figured out how to take it apart.
They started to cut through our midfield like a hot knife through butter.
That led to had their opening goal in the 20th minute.
The less said about Liam Scales’ contribution to that, the better.
Against all expectations, Mika Baur equalised for Celtic in the 44th minute
The euphoria from that equaliser lasted all of about a minute and a half, as Ferencvaros went straight up the park from tip off and put themselves ahead again in calamitous circumstances.
I resigned myself to the fact that this was how the night was going to go.
And by the time the second half kicked off, that resignation was confirmed.
The ineffective Oliver Sørensen was taken off, and fellow Dane Kasper Høgh was brought on to take his place upfront alongside Camilo Duran in what looked like a 4-4-2 formation.
By the second minute of the second half, we were 3-1 down.
It was inevitable that Daniel Arzani would score a spectacular goal on his return to Celtic Park, and he did just that.
From then on, I really don’t know what to make of what went on.
Callum McGregor certainly didn’t have the defensive legs to play in the 6 position
How he was meant to get back to cover as an 8 with no 6 at all is beyond me.
And it showed.
The substitutions from Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney were equally baffling.
In fact they weren’t really, they were true to the form we’ve seen in substitutions all season so far.
I’m not sure what formation we finished with.
I actually gave up trying to figure out what was going on.
Luke McCowan was about as effective as he was in Linz.
Sebastian Tounekti did what Sebastian Tounekti does best, nothing at all.
He has this fantastic ability to find only opposition players when he gets inside the box.
Benjamin Nygren tried, but ultimately failed to score one of his trademark spectacular goals.
The icing on the cake was the introduction of Anthony Ralston
That put the tin hat on the whole disastrous evening.
By the 80th minute, the Celtic Park crowd had had enough, and the stands started to empty.
There was no reason to hang around in the hopes of a miracle.
Martin O’Neill delivered the last one of those on the 16th of May against Hearts, he has none left now.
He should have left it at that after Scottish Cup final.
He now risks exiting Celtic Park in a similar style to Neil Lennon if things continue to go the way they are.
I’d like to think that Martin could turn things around on Sunday
But if I’m being honest, I don’t hold out much hope for that either.
A draw is probably the best we can hope for there.
Last night, it looked as if he’d lost the plot.
When we’re witnessing a shitshow like last night’s, in conjunction with last Sunday, you begin to fear the worst.
Sunday is now about survival.
For both Martin O’Neill, and our title hopes.
Lose that one, and we’re at the mercy of the stubbornness of Dermot Desmond and Martin O’Neill combined.
And if Martin decided to go?
Well, what’s the alternative?
I’ll leave you with that ominous thought.
The chickens are well and truly coming home to roost now.
The Celtic board’s gambling is finally catching up with them.
Celtic fan media has been warning about this for long enough now.
We’ve been ignored, and now we’re suffering the consequences.
Key Takeaways
- Celtic Park’s game descended into chaos after a promising start, leading to confusion among fans.
- Midfield issues persisted, with Callum McGregor struggling and not solving the team’s problems.
- The management team appears to be heading in the wrong direction, reminiscent of last season’s struggles.
- Concerns grow about the upcoming match against Ibrox, with fears of continued decline this season.
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Board are the architects of this shambles, they are incompetent imbeciles.
MON hasn’t a clue and players not good enough.
Until this board goes we’ll stumble along without any plans.
The worst thing is that we have all seen this coming .
What can we do to help? Stop going until Desmond and his acolytes are away.
I agree , ST money may have been paid , I’ve said on other Celtic sites , A total stand is needed , Do what Lazio did , turn up outside the stadium , clap the team of the bus & then go home , an empty Stadium will eventually bring out the board to at least speak to Fan Media , if they don’t , then TV & SMSM will rip them to pieces, NAP more must continue , we know that the players are not good enough but it’s not their fault , we need a recruitment team to change all that , and that starts with the removal of the whole coaching staff, it will be difficult to replace them, but we need to start somewhere and as soon as possible, then they can think about recruitment in January, and weed out the players that are not good enough, I may be wrong but it’s an opinion HH
I lost count of the passbacks when a Celtic player going forward in our own half stopped and passed back to someone lying deeper, or to the keeper, step forward Liam. We had the ball 30 yards from goal, not sure who it was, he looked up, stopped, back pass and before we knew it it was scrambled clear by OUR keeper. This slow, back, sideways passing act has been rumbled. Possession is one thing but passing back, sideways and back again gets us nothing but pressure we can’t handle, as witnessed by LASK, the huns and last night. I dread to think of Sunday…
We hoped for better, we got it for 5 opening minutes. As soon as we went behind, it looked like another clueless affair. Sinisalo or Johnstone? Doesn’t matter… Hogh or Duran? Doesn’t matter… Because when you are wide open to passes cutting straight through your midfield, and when you can’t supply to an isolated ST, then your keeper of choice faces shots on goal and your chosen ST is expected to work a miracle. Start this shape against them on Sunday and you know what’s coming. These players have ability, they have the experience to win these games – but when you’re asked to play this shape, with nothing linking up to any effect, and without an answer from the dugout – your head goes down. 3-1 down at home in a European tie, and the answer is Tounekti, McCowan and Ralston? I can’t get on board with CalMac now. He was looking for luck in his post-match interview last night! Luck!? How about some courage, how about some tough work and risk and make your own luck? That’s what brings a squad together Cal, not waiting on some change in fortune – you make it happen, and let others believe it was fate! He should know better to come out with that shite, but he’s clearly fed up repeating himself and trying to blag a new narrative for the media. Failed… again. Someone has to lead here and I don’t see it from the dugout or the pitch recently. MONs pre-match interview showed where his nerves are at. That alone foreshadowed what was to come after the 90 minutes. Somebody please stand up, be honest and get us out of this ditch before it becomes even more of a deepening psychological battle. Get out there on Sunday, win the first tackle, leave a mark, win second balls, and set a fecking example for the rest! It doesn’t need to be beautiful, and we know it won’t be, but it does need to be committed.
I’ve never watched a professional football team pass the ball backwards so much and it does my absolute dinger in. How can we score or supply our CF in we are going backwards?????
Tounekti obviously has no left foot at all so why persist with playing him on the left. Whose stupid idea is it to do that – it doesn’t work, not with the players we have. We are going to get smashed on Sunday if these arsehole on the pitch dont smarten up amd harden up. Have to forgotten how to tackle and put themselves about. So scared to get involved.
Going on a nature trail or a couple of hours of fishing all being well on Sunday…
Gonna be a brutal day me thinks…
Please prove me wrong Celtic but I canny see it !
We get a goal kick and do what we did 30 times on Sunday .Goalie to Scales back to goalie now to Cameron Vickers then back to Goalie then a scrambled clearance that only goes 30 yards and normally to an opposition player. 4 days later after some intensive coaching to resolve this stupidity we do exactly the same last night. Nobody anywhere could explain this idioticness.
Opposition players stand beside a Celtic player while this chaos ensues and then get the ball back when it is scrambled clear.In mid-field the only thing missing is Snow White as we certainly have her dwarfs. McGregor dropping back to play beside two statuesque centre backs,vacating mid-field with Baur getting over run eventually joining him in our box,then nothing in midfield left.
People wonder why we keep losing goals from the edge of the box until you see our midfield holding hands in the box with our back four with nobody out defending the 3-4 opposition players standing at the edge of the box. Without going into individual players performances (which is pointless as the tactics are so bad) nothing will improve until some evidence of coaching is seen on the park.
Evidence of coaching and acquiring players who can carry out their instructions, such as manning the midfield.
Blind man with a stick could see this coming, and I refuse to believe that it’s not deliberate policy. No one is this inept, and we can’t be getting too far away from the Huns after all. From appointing Martin, too knowing they’d sell our best players, knowing also they wouldn’t replace them, it was obvious it wouldn’t end well.
Like everyone else I hoped against hope I’d be wrong, but didn’t really believe at any point that I would be. We’ve seen this for too many years, same s..t carried out time after time. There’s no problem having a little hope, but people thinking Martin was a good idea, that we no longer needed ‘not a penny more’, and that all action against the board should cease really do live in cloud cuckoo land. But here’s the rub, as long as people queue up to throw cash at them via season tickets, the longer this will go on. Why would they change their ways when they get such a vote of approval every year?.