Martin O’Neill Faces Scrutiny After Celtic's Derby Defeat
Martin O’Neill has rarely tiptoed into an Old Firm fallout, but this one will sting. A 3-0 defeat to Rangers in a League Cup quarter-final is damaging enough. The manner of it, and the team sheet that preceded it, have opened the door to sharp questions about his selection and his players’ mentality.
Former Celtic striker Cillian Sheridan did not bother sugar-coating it. Too many in green and white, he said, simply failed to turn up at Ibrox.
On the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast, Sheridan laid the charge plainly: “I can imagine personnel changing [on Thursday] because I think there were too many players that didn't show up against Rangers.” In a fixture that usually exposes the timid, Celtic had several.
Tounekti call leaves eyebrows raised
The biggest surprise came an hour before kick-off. Sebastian Tounekti, still feeling his way into life at Celtic, started on the wing. On the bench sat Haissem Hassan, one of the club’s headline summer signings and a player many expected to see from the first whistle in this kind of occasion.
Sheridan admitted he was taken aback. He believed this was exactly the type of game built for Hassan’s direct running and sharp edge in the final third, and had imagined a front three of Hassan, Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran taking the fight to Rangers.
“If there were worries over Hassan's fitness, you start him and give him 60 minutes,” Sheridan argued. The logic was ruthless: get your best attacking threat on the pitch when the contest is alive, not when it’s slipping away. As soon as he saw the line-up, he said, he could see the half-time change coming. Hassan did indeed arrive at the interval, but by then Celtic were chasing a tie that was already tilting heavily against them.
The pressure finally told on O’Neill’s choices. Tounekti, thrust into a ferocious derby environment, struggled to impose himself. The switch at the break felt less like a tactical tweak and more like an admission that the initial gamble had failed.
Europa League and a rapid Rangers rematch
There is no time for Celtic to lick their wounds. Ferencvaros visit Glasgow on Thursday for the Europa League opener, a match that now carries extra weight. It is not just about points in a group; it is about restoring belief in a dressing room and in a manager’s judgement.
Sheridan expects O’Neill to react. Changes, he suggested, are almost inevitable after a display that left Celtic’s support seething. “O'Neill will maybe take a little bit of criticism, probably for his selections and one or two subs he made,” he said, a line that underplays the intensity that usually follows any Old Firm setback.
Because at clubs like Celtic and Rangers, one bad result never exists in isolation. It becomes a storyline. It snowballs. “As soon as one bad result comes, it's magnified and the season's in crisis,” Sheridan noted.
Three days after Ferencvaros, Rangers come again in the Scottish Premiership. Same rivals, same scrutiny, but a very different requirement from Celtic. O’Neill cannot afford another afternoon where “too many players didn’t show up.” The next team sheet will say plenty about who he truly trusts when the heat rises.
