Sunday may not have been a Celtic performance of old, but once again the champions found a way under Martin O’Neill and secured a place in the last four of the Scottish Cup after a battle at Ibrox.
An already weakened squad, without Jota, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston for much of the campaign, was put to a further test at the weekend, with supporters likely fearing the worst with the team sheet lowered.
There were rumblings that a resurgent Kieran Tierney could cause problems, but the absence of influential skipper Callum McGregor was a real surprise, leaving O’Neill to make do without two of his trusted lieutenants.
To their credit, the Hoops almost got over the line after a mostly monotonous derby meeting, but Parkhead officials will be praying for McGregor’s quick return.
Latest update on Callum McGregor’s injury against Celtic
There is hardly a game in which Celtic’s Mr. Consistent, McGregor, does not have the confidence to play in front of a back four. Currently, he holds an irreplaceable position that is almost impossible to relinquish for a long time.
There’s a sense that this team can’t do without him, and O’Neill seems to share that view, having captained him against Auchinleck-Talbot in the lower leagues and against Stuttgart in a relatively dead rubber Europa League second leg.
Despite Sunday’s penalty shootout win, Celtic failed to register a single shot on target and while the overall performance showed what the former Scotland international brought to the team, it may have come at the cost of his ever-present involvement.
Tam McManus believes the title-chasing team will be in “big trouble” if McGregor is out for an extended period of time, given the evidence from O’Neill’s performance at the weekend, and the latest news from O’Neal was not exactly reassuring.
Indeed, while the aforementioned Tierney is likely to be available for this weekend’s game against Motherwell, the Hoops boss is less certain about McGregor’s return, revealing that the 32-year-old may have suffered a recurrence of the calf injury that troubled him last season.
“I don’t think[a win without McGregor]should be ignored,” he said. “He felt it at Aberdeen (on Wednesday).
“I think the medical team said this was something that was here last year and maybe it came back, so the best thing to do was to remove him.”
Sometimes, like in McGregor’s case, you never realize how good you have something until it’s gone…
New McGregor becomes Celtic’s most valuable player
Liam Scales is at left back. In the back line are Villamo Sinisalo and Benjamin Arthur, who have relatively little experience. Luke McCowan plays a deep role in midfield.
What Sir Alex Ferguson and Gary Neville say about Celtic and Rangers fans as police condemn Ibrox clash
Manchester United’s legendary pair had different opinions…
Despite being a square peg in a round hole and having a number of absentees, Celtic got the job done on Sunday. Even the loss of McGregor was not fatal for the men in green and white.
However, it wasn’t as if the side were firing on all cylinders, as their poor performance showed, highlighting that O’Neill is still struggling to fill the void left by Arne Engels after he was sidelined in recent weeks.
The Belgian’s importance to the squad has become clear even in his absence, having been absent since limping off against Livingston last month, shortly after the club rejected a £25m loan offer from Nottingham Forest.
Like McGregor, O’Neill has struggled to find a real solution after being sidelined in recent weeks, but the 22-year-old looks like he could quietly make Celtic a better team if he is fit and strong.
Reo Hatate is starting to find his form again, but the Japanese playmaker still looks like a vestige of his former best, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s debut heroics are now a distant memory.
Indeed, although there has been much criticism of Celtic’s club-record £11m signing, Engels has made a huge difference alongside McGregor in the middle of the park, scoring 35 goals and assisting in 90 games for the club so far.
Celtic performance after Engels injury | ||
|---|---|---|
competition | they will object | result |
scotland cup | rangers | 0-0 (2-4 pens) |
premiership | aberdeen | 1-2(W) |
premiership | rangers | 2-2(D) |
europe league | stuttgart | 0-1 (win) |
premiership | hibernian | 1-2 (large) |
europe league | stuttgart | 1-4 (large) |
premiership | kilmarnock | 2-3(W) |
Twelve of those goal involvements have come this season, and the former Augsburg man is certainly not the finished product, but like McGregor, his absence is keenly felt when he doesn’t feature.
His importance to Celtic’s cause is evidenced by his skyrocketing market value, and he now overtakes Daen Maeda as the club’s most valuable player, according to Transfermarkt.
He is thought to be worth €18m (approx. £15m), more than Maeda’s value of €12m (approx. £10m), and it looks like Celtic will benefit from him in the future, although getting the youngster back to full fitness for this crucial stage of the season is the current priority.
He may not be a physical, all-action midfield machine, but like McGregor, his technical qualities elevate O’Neill’s team in the middle of the pitch.
He’s as bad as Mvuka: £5m flop should never play for Celtic again
Joel Mvuka is not the only Celtic attacker who should finish at Parkhead.
