MARTIN O’NEILL hopes Celtic’s truly awful performance and unacceptable defeat at Ibrox yesterday acts as “a wake-up call” for the champions.
And the 74-year-old manager includes himself among those who have urgent questions to answer.
O’Neill is prepared for a bout of self-analysis as he attempts to discover what went so wrong on a monumental scale for his team in a puzzlingly tame capitulation to crash out of the Premier Sports League Cup.
The exit came just 19 days after the expulsion from the Champions League following the 5-1 collapse to LASK in Austria after leading 4-0 with just an hour to go.
Reflecting on his team’s horror show in Govan, a clearly-upset O’Neill said: “Domestically, it’s been good for us so far.
SELF-ANALYSIS…Martin O’Neill will look at his performance after the Ibrox collapse. Image courtesy CelticPlayer.
“But I just thought we were second best and they looked physically stronger than us on the day. We need to do something about it.
“So, it’s a combination of a number of things.
“The first thing I have to do is look at my own performance before I start talking about the team.”
O’Neill, speaking to CelticPlayer added: “The disappointment is tangible and everybody has to look at themselves – myself, and then I obviously have to look at the team, how we played, how we didn’t play in many aspects.
“And, hopefully, it’s a wake-up call to us.”
The veteran team chief won’t have too long to wait in his efforts to get the team back on track.
The Hoops welcome Hungary’s Ferencvaros to Parkhead on Thursday in their opening Europa League encounter and then it’s the second of the double-header against Derek McInnes’ outfit at the same venue on Sunday.
The champions go into the league confrontation in the knowledge a win will put them EIGHT points ahead of their city rivals.
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