Celtic's Struggles Continue Under O'Neill

Celtic’s support has never been short on faith, but this is testing it to the limit.

A 3-0 mauling at Ibrox was supposed to be the jolt that woke Martin O'Neill’s side. Instead, Ferencvaros arrived, saw the same fragility, and helped themselves. Another heavy defeat, three more goals shipped, and a Celtic team that looked like it had forgotten the basics of its own identity.

Loose in midfield. Loose at the back. Sloppy on the ball. The fundamentals – pass, move, press, repeat – have drained away. The intensity that once defined them has gone missing. So has the work-rate. So has almost everything that made Celtic such a relentless force not so long ago.

For long spells at 3-1 down, they tried to convince themselves they were still in it. Shots from distance, hopeful rather than constructed, replaced the slick combinations and suffocating pressure that used to drag opponents into places they hated. The contrast with the Ange Postecoglou era could not be starker. Then, Celtic were all aggression and invention, risk and speed, with defenders twisted out of shape and out of breath.

This version is a pale copy. A poor imitation wearing a famous shirt.

O’Neill’s flat echo of a flat team

Scottish football can flip in an instant, and the second instalment of this season’s Old Firm drama at Celtic Park on Sunday remains hard to call. Home advantage counts. So does the likelihood of some kind of reaction to that humiliation at Ibrox.

But worry is creeping into the stands. Five goals conceded against LASK, a desperate derby, and now this Europa League opener that stirred memories of some of Celtic’s bleakest European nights.

There were echoes of Cluj and Copenhagen in 2019 and 2020, of Sparta Prague in 2020, of Legia Warsaw, Salzburg and Maribor. Different years, different names – Bayo, Bolingoli, Klimala, Ajeti, Duffy, Laxalt – but the same feeling of a team unravelling on a European stage. Low energy, loud boos, and a side that looked bereft of answers.

O'Neill tried to address it afterwards. He talked about frustration and failure, about the psychological scars of nights like this. He promised Celtic would “get ourselves together” for Rangers. Yet his voice carried little conviction. There was no spark, no defiance, just a tired tone that matched the leaden, stale performance his players had delivered.

This is a manager who has fixed chaos before, both in his first, trophy-laden reign and in his return last season when he dragged Celtic from disarray to discipline. He restored order. He restored belief. He made them horrible to play against and almost impossible to beat on the title run-in.

That ferocity feels like yesterday. It also feels a long way away.

Possession without purpose

The night against Ferencvaros began with promise. Celtic started reasonably well, then gave up a soft goal. They briefly roused themselves with a flash of quality to level, only to retreat back into their shell.

Safe passes. No real zeal. Just a flicker of fire and emotion where once there had been a blaze.

The goal conceded before half-time told a grim story. Hesitation over a loose ball. Weakness in stopping the cross. Confusion and disorganisation in the box. It was the sort of goal poor teams give away, the sort of sequence that screams of a side unsure of itself.

The numbers only deepened the frustration. Celtic had 62.5% of the ball in the first half and still trailed 2-1. Camilo Duran, preferred through the middle ahead of Kasper Hogh, touched the ball just eight times.

Duran, who arrived in Glasgow with a visible joy and energy, now looks a shadow of that player. Hogh, signed for £11m with a European pedigree – goals against Man City, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Sporting, Porto, Jagiellonia and Olympiacos for Bodo Glimt – has turned into an awkward, isolated centre-forward starved of service and short of confidence. His first touch deserts him, chances don’t come, and he has scored in only one of his eight Celtic appearances.

O’Neill has not yet found the key to unlock him. Right now, he doesn’t look close.

Even Callum McGregor, the constant, the on-field conscience of this team, is drifting. The captain looks a little lost in the fog. If McGregor is searching, the alarm bells ring louder.

Arzani’s strike twists the knife

On nights like this, football has a cruel sense of humour. Of course it was Daniel Arzani, the former Celtic loanee who barely registered during his time in Glasgow, who applied the final cut.

The move that led to his goal was a damning indictment of Celtic’s structure. Ferencvaros broke, Celtic scattered. Colby Donovan over-committed in attack and then sprinted back in vain, chasing shadows. Arzani found himself in acres of space on the left, took his time, picked his spot and whipped a superb finish into the top corner.

The counter-attack exposed Celtic in the most embarrassing way. It was chaotic, almost comic, with more organisation in a slapstick routine than in their defensive shape.

This is where Celtic now stand: a team lacking ideas, conviction, composure, physical presence, mental resilience, creativity, ruthlessness and, most damningly, the appetite for a fight. The manager looks drained of inspiration too.

O’Neill has bounced back from difficult moments across his career. His history conditions you to expect another revival. But this is no minor tune-up. This is a major rebuild of belief and structure, and it needs to happen at speed.

McGregor has admitted the team is “a little bit broken”. Rangers will have heard that. They will fancy the prospect of facing a wounded rival, sensing the chance to land another blow and shift the balance of power in Glasgow.

Celtic, under O’Neill, once specialised in turning crisis into fuel. On Sunday, in the heat of an Old Firm cauldron, we find out if they still remember how.