DUNDEE, SCOTLAND - MARCH 22: Celtic's Kieran Tierney in action during a William Hill Premiership match between Dundee United and Celtic at the CalForth Construction Arena at Tannadice, on March 22, 2026, in Dundee, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
So I watched Martin O’Neill’s press conference earlier today, and what I was hoping to hear was some indication that he understands the current system is not working. I didn’t hear that. But I know this; if we play the same way again, Celtic will not win anything, far less a league and cup double.
There was very little in what he said that encouraged me. The injury news was reasonable, I suppose. It does not sound like Arne Engels will be fit to start and may still be a few weeks away. It could have been worse, but overall we are going into this game with pretty much the same squad we had two weeks ago.
That means we are going to have to be a lot sharper and a lot better to get a result.
I find it hard to believe that O’Neill and his coaching staff do not know the style has to change. They must see it. Everyone in Celtic fan media has been saying the same thing in one form or another. We are not playing well enough. We are not aggressive enough. The system is not sharp enough to deliver the results we need.
The professionals have to see that too. That is why I was hoping someone would ask him about it. About changing the system, the shape, the approach. Nobody did.
Part of that is because the mainstream media is hopeless. Fan media would have asked that question. There is no doubt about that. But fan media is still not allowed in the room.
I expected him to acknowledge the lack of pace in our play, the lack of movement off the ball, the lack of urgency. He didn’t. Instead, he talked about not adapting well enough to the conditions at Tannadice.
If you are blaming the conditions, you are already in trouble.
Yes, the pitch was poor. It may be one of the worst top-flight surfaces I have seen. Dundee United F.C. should not be allowed to present that as an acceptable surface at this level, and the Scottish Football Association should be dealing with it.
They won’t, of course.
But the conditions were not the problem. The way we play football is the problem and I can say that with confidence because this is not an isolated incident. We have not won in Dundee this season. We have not beaten Hearts nor the Ibrox club over 90 minutes. This team are scraping through games.
We are not functioning as a proper unit. The football is too slow. It is pedestrian. It lacks incision.
If the conditions were to blame, then what was the excuse for the cup quarter-final at Ibrox, where we didn’t register a shot on target and had to rely on penalties? What was the excuse for St Mirren earlier in the season, when we had no shots on target for 90 minutes and won it with the last kick of the ball? What was the excuse for the first-half performance against Kilmarnock?
You can keep going. The pattern is obvious. Blaming the conditions is convenient. It is also wrong. If Celtic go into this game thinking that a slightly better surface will fix everything while we play the same way, we are making a serious mistake.
The only way out of this is to raise the tempo dramatically. We need quicker passing, better movement, sharper decision-making. We need to move the ball fast enough that defences do not have time to reset.
I said this the other day, and it still holds.
The result matters, but how we get it matters just as much. If Celtic win this game playing the same slow, predictable football, all it will do is reinforce the idea that this approach is good enough to win us this title. It isn’t. It won’t.
If we do not come out against Dundee with real intensity, with pace, with purpose from the first whistle, then we do not deserve to win anything. Because that would mean we have learned nothing.
Maybe we will see something different when the game kicks off. Maybe that is when the change comes. But if the manager genuinely believes the issue at Tannadice was the conditions and not the performance, then that is a serious misreading of what happened.
The performance at Tannadice did not come out of nowhere.
We all saw it coming. It is the same performance we saw against Hibs. The same one we have seen throughout this long, frustrating campaign.
That is what has to change, and if that’s really the only conclusion people reached from the Tannadice disaster then it is one of the worst misdiagnoses in the recent history of Celtic. That wasn’t close to being our problem on the day.
Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.
How long have we been bleating about this style of football. It is in stark contrast to the first half v sevco 1-3 game when they should have been buried first half, why have we not continued in the same vein since. The answer to that is in the way McGregor and Scales play the game, slow back and across nonsense allowing teams to reset, it has all been said before.
I reckon that if we timed periods that the ball is with a Celtic player in their own half it would far outweigh the time a Celtic player or players had the ball in the opposition half during 90mins.
We seem to have lost the idea that goals win games or even the idea that we should be hitting the ball in the direction of the opposition goalie. Posession for posessions sake seems to be the way of it now with the outcome of going nowhere.
Couldn’t agree more, Hugh. I have been saying it for years now and have come to thew conclusion it is purely and simply laziness.
CMG has been a wage thief for years now and yet he seems to be worshipped and I can’t figure that out. Even Sutton said if we lose MacGregor it’s finished, mind you he may be ruined by having played with Lennon. The midfield are MIA and it is left up to Scales who, God bless him, is as brave as they come but is left to make the play as he strolls 30 yards wondering what to do with the ball. This is the gameplay every game.
Every saunter, every sideways or backwards pass gives the opposition time to get organised and I can’t see it being any different on Sunday. Maloney said they were only going to tweak things when they came in.
Since O’Neill came back we have been slightly harder to beat but the football is mind numbing. I thought O’Neill and Maloney were meant to be great coaches. I habe seen nothing to suggest that. Is he going to blame the wind on Dunday if we don’t win which could easily be the case.
Martin did not and is not blaming the conditions for last week’s defeat. He nipped that one in the bud after the game when asked about it and he said then that both teams played under the same conditions. What he is saying now is that we did not play well enough to cope with those conditions, that is different from blaming them. MON does not do that, he is more pragmatic than that. You should know better James.
That’s exactly how I saw it Johnny. When Gordon Duncan offered the conditions as a possible excuse, MON slapped him down instantly saying they should’ve handled the conditions better as they were the same for both teams.
What he couldn’t have said was that the players he’s been left with might not be up to Celtic standards, so he just has to work with the hand Dermot’s dealt him.
Keeping possession with no pace or penetration has become the be all and end all of Celtics approach to games for over a year now. I don’t blame individual players for this, our style of play is boring and lacking in imagination, we are lacking in so many areas of the team, both in terms of skill and physique. What talent we do have is now being lost in a blizzard of discord at the club. MON has bitten off more than he can chew, I don’t blame him or his coaching staff, who have been asked twice to pick up the pieces , after BR spat the dummy out and selfishly walked away. leaving a group of disillusioned players. Then the board decidedon a managerial appointment made in hell. MON and his temporary coaches have done their best in two spells in charge, and if they had been left in charge after BR had walked, then we would be well top of this League.
Between the injuries and lack of any quality signings they have been left to make do with a patchwork squad.
The display last week had been on the cards, teams have sussed that we are not very good, and are physicaly weak. Hopefully MON starts afresh on Sunday with a completely new system, we need to start to gamble and ditch this slow boring style, More diagonal and forward passes, cut out taking one or two touches before passing. Win 7 games and this League will be ours, let’s either win this League with glory, or at least go down playing football, in what used to be the Celtic way.
Martin should get to fuck out if we lose on Sunday and then the cup semi final…
For his sanity, his age and what this shit show must be doing for his health !