Celtic's Struggles Under O'Neill: A Season of Doubt
The Celtic faithful are not used to this. Doubt, real doubt, about Martin O'Neill. About his ability to drag them out of whatever this is – a slump, or something far more corrosive. The instinct is to trust him. The evidence on the pitch is making that trust harder by the game.
Four days after being taken apart at Ibrox, Celtic walked into another beating. Ferencvaros did not just win their Europa League opener. They helped themselves to three more goals against a side that look fragile, short of belief and, at times, short of basic organisation.
The same faults kept flashing up. Careless midfield play. Loose, jittery defending. Safe, sideways passing that sucked the life out of any attack. The simple act of passing and moving, once automatic under Ange Postecoglou, now looked like a lost art. The tempo was low. The work-rate patchy. The intensity sporadic at best.
For a spell at 3-1 down, Celtic tried to rouse themselves. Shots started flying in from distance, hopeful rather than planned, individual rather than collective. There was no sense of a co-ordinated press, no surge of speed to pin Ferencvaros back. Just pot-shots from a team searching for something, anything.
Under Postecoglou, Celtic played like a side on fast-forward – aggressive, inventive, relentless. They dragged defenders into horrible positions, took risks with the ball and trusted their own courage. This current version is a pale copy. The idea is there in theory. On the grass, it is nowhere to be seen.
A manager mirroring his team
Scottish football can flip quickly. One result, one performance, and the mood changes. That is the hope Celtic cling to before Rangers come to Celtic Park on Sunday for the second act of this season’s Old Firm drama. The venue and the wounded pride suggest a reaction is coming.
The recent history suggests something else. Five goals shipped against LASK. A chastening afternoon at Ibrox. Now this Europa League collapse. The pattern is ugly.
At points on Thursday night, the football dragged supporters back to some of the grimmest European memories of recent years. Cluj and Copenhagen in 2019 and 2020. Sparta Prague in 2020. Names like Bayo, Bolingoli, Klimala, Ajeti, Duffy and Laxalt float back into view. So do Legia Warsaw, Salzburg, Maribor. Nights of naivety, soft goals and a team that never looked truly convinced by itself.
The atmosphere told its own story. Energy levels on the pitch sagged, while the volume of the booing rose. The image of a side out of ideas, out of confidence and out of answers could not be missed.
O'Neill faced the cameras afterwards and talked about frustration, failure and psychological damage. He spoke about how these moments hit you and test your resolve. He promised Celtic would “get ourselves together” for Rangers, but his voice lacked spark. His words felt heavy.
He explained where Celtic had gone wrong, listed the deficiencies, but he did not sound like a man brimming with solutions. The interview was a reflection of the performance: flat, tired, dispiriting.
This is the same O'Neill who has fixed problems before. In his first spell he stacked trophies, then came back into chaos last season and restored order and belief. Celtic became stubborn again, hard to beat, awkward to shake off. On the title run-in, nobody managed it. That resilience feels recent in the memory, yet on nights like this it also feels miles away.
Soft goals, softer centre
The start against Ferencvaros was not disastrous. Celtic had the ball, had territory, even had some control. Then they conceded a soft goal and the whole thing sagged. They clawed their way back with a flash of quality, only to drift back into bad habits – safe passes, little ambition, hardly any fire.
The goal before half-time summed up where they are. The first duel for the loose ball was lost through hesitation. The attempt to stop the cross lacked conviction. The marking in the box was confused. Poor teams concede goals like that. Celtic did.
By the break, they had enjoyed 62.5% of the possession and still trailed 2-1. Their centre-forward, Camilo Duran, starting through the middle ahead of Kasper Hogh, had touched the ball just eight times.
Duran, so vibrant and enthusiastic when he arrived in Glasgow, looked drained of that early spark. A shadow of the player who had embraced his new surroundings only weeks ago.
Hogh’s story is even more jarring. This is the striker who scored against Man City (twice), Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Sporting, Porto, Jagiellonia and Olympiacos (three) for Bodo Glimt. A forward who thrived on big European nights. In a Celtic shirt, he has become an awkward presence up front, struggling with his first touch and starved of meaningful chances.
One goal in eight games is the stark return. For an £11m signing, it is nowhere near enough. O'Neill has not yet found a way to unlock him.
Even Callum McGregor, the captain and constant, looks diminished. The player who has been Celtic’s compass for years is suddenly unsure of his bearings. O'Neill has the experience and tactical acumen to address it, but time is not his friend. Right now, he neither looks nor sounds entirely convincing.
Arzani’s sting and a damning picture
Given how Celtic’s week had gone, there was an inevitability about Daniel Arzani scoring. A former Celtic player who barely left a mark first time around, he returned to deliver a moment that cut deep.
The goal was brutal in its simplicity. Celtic lost the ball, Ferencvaros sprang forward, and the green and white shirts scattered like a slapstick routine. There was more order in the Keystone Cops.
Colby Donovan had over-committed in attack and now sprinted desperately back, but Arzani had oceans of space on the left. He steadied himself, waited, picked his spot and whipped a superb finish into the top corner. Clinical. Effortless. Damning.
O'Neill now faces a brutal turnaround. He needs answers, and he needs them fast. Football can be strange – managers have pulled off sharp reversals before, and O'Neill’s career is full of comebacks – but the scale of the current malaise is clear.
Celtic look short of ideas, conviction, composure and physical edge. They lack creativity and ruthlessness. Above all, they look light on the sheer appetite for a fight that defined their best days.
The manager himself appears drained of inspiration. His track record says he can recover from this kind of turbulence. The evidence in front of him says there is a long list of problems to solve before that happens.
McGregor has already admitted the team is “a little bit broken”. Across the city, Rangers will sense vulnerability and an opportunity to deepen the wound. The old warning about a backlash hangs in the air, but so does the chance for another blow.
On Sunday, under the glare and fury of Celtic Park, we will discover whether this is just a wobble in O'Neill’s second coming – or the start of something far more troubling between Glasgow’s two giants.
