Callum McGregor has held his hands up and acknowledged that Rangers looked more like a team than Celtic did on Sunday.
The Hoops were dismantled by their rivals at Ibrox as manager Martin O’Neill also recognised that his side put on a poor performance as they lost 3-0 at Ibrox.
O’Neill explained how Celts have structural issues to deal with and his captain has echoed those sentiments as he admitted he and his teammates underperformed significantly as they were knocked out of the Premier Sports Cup.
Midfield in particular was often overrun by Gers players and McGregor certainly did not have his best game in green and white.
And the Scottish champions’ slackness in possession was another source of frustration which caused unforced errors and allowed the hosts to dominate. As was O’Neill’s personnel decisions before the match.
“Once we went behind in the game we never looked like recovering to be honest,” McGregor told the BBC.
“We had a couple of good moments early on if we take them it’s a different game. And we know that coming here you’re not going to get hundreds and hundreds of chances. You get moments in the game where if you take them it can totally change the outlook of the game.
“I felt like once we went one behind we never really looked like getting back in it, to be honest.”
Asked if Celtic’s poor passing shocked the skipper, McGregor added: “Technically it did. You come here and if you want to impose yourself you’ve got to be good on the ball and we never quite did that.
“To be honest it wasn’t under massive pressure either, it was quite careless and slack. When you think we have half a foot in the game we keep turning the ball over and it’s a counter-attack which is what they want and are good at.
“Was it one of the toughest times I’ve had out there? Yeah because it wasn’t us. I think the difference between the two sides was you seen the team and you seen a team of individuals as well.
“Rangers were a team and you could see that. We looked like a team of individuals who wanted to do our own thing and play when we got the ball, not necessarily run when you don’t. That’s what you can’t do when you come here, you’ve got to run. You can’t defend with six players, it’s impossible.
“We’re trying to get the message to everyone that we need to be a team, to be the team we want to be. And we need to find a way to do that quickly because we lost a big game in LASK and another one today. It’s not acceptable.
“There will be other big games in the season and eventually you have to win one if you want to be considered a good team. We’ve put ourselves under pressure and we need to respond on Thursday and then on Sunday and we quickly need to get to the level.”
“I’m not going to shy away from that because everyone’s going to be talking about it, let’s be fair. So if we want to be a good Celtic team we have to win the big games, that’s one thing we’ve always done is win big games and turned up when it mattered.
“So far this season we’ve been bitty in games and we need to fix it.”
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Did you not say something similar after the LASK thrashing, Callum? That old chestnut doesn’t cut it, Im afraid. You were as bad as the rest of them – attrocious and humiliating performances of late. It’s not on son!