Yes, Celtic needs a midfield hardman. But not just for Ibrox.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s draw, one of the things I read online over and over again was concern about Celtic’s lack of physicality going to Ibrox. Even people who were not particularly worried about the game itself were at least wary of that aspect of it.

The question kept coming up: are we really going to go there with a lightweight midfield?

My thoughts on that are pretty simple. They are where they have always been. We do not retool the entire team, the entire philosophy and the entire way we play simply because we are going to Ibrox. It is one game.

It is a cup tie and obviously we do not want to get knocked out, but building your squad specifically for one opponent would be a ridiculous way to operate.

Fortunately, I do not think that is what Martin O’Neill is doing. I do not believe that the underlying ethos he is working to is fixated – as his Ibrox counterpart’s is – on a single opponent.

I think Martin already knows this squad needs greater physicality, and I think he intends to bring it in. But it will not be because of one game at Ibrox. It will be because that quality has been missing from Celtic for too long.

A lot of clubs in this league are going to come to a fairly swift conclusion about us this season. Sitting behind the ball may no longer be enough. Pressing us high up the pitch may no longer be enough either.

A lot of the old ideas about how to frustrate Celtic, methods which teams have experimented with and occasionally got results from over the last couple of years, may be starting to lose their effectiveness.

So, what comes next? Physical aggression. Brute force. Trying to make the game ugly. Trying to make Celtic uncomfortable. Trying to turn football matches into battles rather than contests of technique.

And if you think that is unlikely, think back to the way Hearts played against us last season. There was physical aggression, players getting in our faces, cynical challenges and a deliberate attempt to make the game uncomfortable.

Some of it was downright horrible to watch. Derek McInnes knows that game very well too. He has been doing it with his teams for years, and the profile of a number of his Ibrox signings makes the intention fairly obvious.

There are a lot of neds in there.

If this was only about Ibrox, however, the game would not be worth the candle. The problem is that plenty of other Scottish teams will eventually reach the same conclusion. If they cannot outplay Celtic, they will try to overpower Celtic.

And the question becomes even more important when we go into Europe.

Celtic have been physically outmuscled far too often on that stage. We regularly come up against teams with six-foot midfielders who are strong, athletic and difficult to move. And whilst I personally think physical strength is sometimes grossly overrated as a footballing quality, the best European teams marry that strength with technical ability.

That is where the real problem lies. They are not simply bigger. They are bigger and good. They are strong and technically capable. They can dominate physically without sacrificing quality on the ball. That is one of the reasons Celtic have so often looked underpowered in European midfield battles.

When you are facing that kind of opponent, it makes little sense to look at your own midfield and see nobody capable of matching the physical side of the contest.

That is one of the things we have lost with Arne Engels.

There are still people who cannot understand how Celtic managed to get more than £20 million for him because they personally did not rate him particularly highly. But look at the physical profile. He is a big guy. He is strong. He is athletic.

And if his next club decides to bulk him out further and develop that side of his game, he becomes a very intimidating footballer to come up against in the middle of the pitch.

That physical presence has now left Celtic. It needs replaced. And the player who replaces it does not have to be six-foot-six.

Neil Lennon was not enormous. Scott Brown was not some gigantic midfielder either. But both of them were strong. Both were aggressive. Both were willing to get into people’s faces. Both had reputations for refusing to be intimidated by anybody.

That is the kind of edge Celtic need again.

We need footballers who are not going to wilt when the opposition decides the game is going to become physical. We need players who can get clattered, get back onto their feet, laugh at the guy who did it and come straight back at him again.

And yes, if the opposition decides to make the game a battle, we need somebody capable of dishing a little of it back. But again, this is not about one stadium. It is not about one team. It is not about one cup tie. Celtic have needed this kind of player for years.

We never really replaced Victor Wanyama. And in another sense, we never properly replaced Scott Brown either. Callum McGregor, for all his quality, is not that type of footballer. He does different things brilliantly.

But Celtic have gone without that aggressive midfield presence for too long.

So, I agree with the people who are worried about the possibility of losing the physical battle at Ibrox. I always have. But I am not worried about Ibrox simply because they may be able to turn the game into a physical contest.

Because it is still going to have to be more than that.

Football still has to be played and if Celtic have superior technical players, superior movement and better attacking options (and we do) I still expect us to win.

But physicality is one of the missing pieces. It is one of the remaining gaps in the tactical system Martin O’Neill is trying to build, and the sooner Celtic get that player through the door, the sooner the manager can begin operating with the freedom he clearly wants.

Because once you have that kind of midfielder, other possibilities open up. You can play a more aggressive attacking system knowing somebody is capable of protecting the centre. You can push players higher. You can change shape more confidently. You can go into Europe without looking at the opposition midfield and wondering who is going to stand up to them physically. And this is where the profile of the signing becomes really interesting.

Do not just give me a bruiser. Give me somebody strong enough to win the battle but talented enough to play the football. Give me somebody who can make the tackle and then make the pass. Give me somebody who can stand up to an aggressive midfield and then dribble beyond it. Give me somebody capable of drawing fouls because opponents cannot get the ball off him cleanly.

Give me somebody who makes Celtic harder without making Celtic less skilful.

That is the player we need. Not because we are going to Ibrox. Because we are going to need him everywhere. If Martin gets that profile right, Ibrox stops looking like some special challenge Celtic have to build themselves around.

It becomes simply another game in which the opposition has to worry about how they are going to stop us.

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