Celtic’s tactical status quo a risk Martin O’Neill reckons is worth taking

Mark Fotheringham at Dens Park ahead of kick-off. Dundee v Celtic. Sunday 5 April 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

Personally I believe a shake up in formation or tactics could be beneficial, especially as our opposition in Scotland figured out how to counteract this current style we utilise a long time ago. Plenty of fans complained that the team had become stagnant under Brendan Rodgers before he exited earlier in the season.

Many bemoaned the ‘horseshoe of death’ that we insisted on playing even though teams were happy enough to sit back and let Celtic pass it constantly from wing to wing via our centre backs, with barely any penetration at the top end of the pitch. The maddening thing is that after all that has gone on this season, we are still playing this way.

After listening to what our manager had to say recently I’m starting to believe that it’s not that O’Neill doesn’t want to shake things up, it’s that perhaps he doesn’t believe the players he has are capable of adjusting to a new style.

More than that, I get the feeling that maybe they don’t want to change, they want to preserve with the style of football that proved successful for so many years under Brendan Rodgers. Martin was asked the following question and this was his reply:

Q: What did you see from St Mirren at the weekend? It was maybe different to previously?

Martin O’Neill: “Well, first of all, I have to say, I think Stephen Robinson did brilliantly at the football club. They won a trophy and they were in there competing. It’s always been difficult, particularly the budgets that they would have and things like this. So he did wonderfully well and played, I thought, to St Mirren’s strengths, which is part of really good management at the end of it all. I think that change in management, probably change in the manner in which they play.

“If I can compare it to us, when I’ve come in here, the way that the team has played for quite a number of years, they don’t really want to change too much.

“Some things that I think, yeah, not sure, but just, I know, yeah, I’m not going to change it because the changes were too far through in the league to try and change things. So I think that that would be good for some sort of comparison with St Mirren as well, to ensure the manager is taking some really good, positive things from what Stephen had done and trying to implement his own character into the team.”

What I’m deciphering from that is that Martin O’Neill isn’t sure about the current style of play in this Celtic team, but the players are happy with it. To be honest this doesn’t surprise me. We all know the appointment of Wilfried Nancy was a disaster. He was the wrong man at the wrong time and his eventual sacking was unavoidable.

Nancy took all the blame and it’s hard to argue with that but it was also worrying that the players completely failed to adapt to a new style.

Was it too much too soon from Nancy? Absolutely. The players however showed during that period that they were wedded to a certain way of playing and found playing any other way alien to them.

I think Martin has looked at that and made his mind up that it’s best to let them stick to what they know, as the consequences of change could be catastrophic. He would have seen how many of the players struggled to play a different way under Nancy and thinks it’s better to let them continue as it is and hope that his man management and motivational skills will be enough to see them over the line.

Personally I feel like these players have to be more adaptable, and it will be interesting to see how this materialises under a new manager come the summer. Most of our squad are international players, so will have experience of adapting to a different style when they are away playing for their country.

With the games currently on a week to week basis rather than every three days surely they would have enough time on the training pitch to learn a slightly different style of play? I imagine O’Neill’s idea of how he would like them to play wouldn’t be completely left field like Wilfried Nancy’s was. Just a few tweaks here and there, more positivity going forward, less passing it back when there are clear options ahead.

It’s a risky move by O’Neill to maintain the status quo but also one that I’m sure he has deliberated at length before coming to this conclusion. If he manages to lead this team to another league triumph then he will be heralded a genius. If we fail, he may look back and wonder should he have rolled the dice and went with his own ideas.

I really hope he doesn’t end his time with Celtic, and perhaps with management all together, wondering ‘what if’.

Conall McGinty

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