A clip doing the rounds on Rangers social media probably sums up Celtic’s afternoon at Ibrox better than any lengthy analysis could.
Shortly after Rangers scored their third goal to put the League Cup quarter-final beyond Celtic, the cameras picked up Callum McGregor addressing his teammates.
“No more goals,” the Celtic captain appears to say, accompanying the message with a gesture effectively telling his teammates to shut up shop.
There were still around 15 minutes to play.
Predictably, the clip is being shared gleefully among the Rangers support. It is not a particularly good look for Celtic or their captain when viewed in isolation, but the reality of what was happening on the pitch explains why McGregor had reached that point.
Celtic were 3-0 down and looked capable of conceding again.
The idea of somehow mounting a miraculous comeback had gone. The priority had shifted to making sure a horrible afternoon did not become an historically bad one.
For all the stick McGregor will inevitably take for the moment, there is also a pragmatism to it. Somebody on the pitch had to recognise where Celtic were.
The bigger concern is how they got there in the first place.
Celtic were second best throughout and barely laid a glove on Rangers. Colby Donovan was one of the few who could leave Ibrox feeling he had put in a decent shift, but collectively the players did not turn up for the occasion.
They are not alone in carrying responsibility.
There has to be scrutiny of the coaching after this. Celtic looked ill-equipped to deal with Rangers, struggled to change the flow of the match and eventually reached a stage where damage limitation became the sensible course of action.
That cannot simply be filed away as one bad performance either. The manner of the defeat to LASK in Europe already offered a warning about what happens when this Celtic team meets an opponent capable of exposing its weaknesses.
Martin O’Neill and his staff now have very little time to find answers. Ferencvaros arrive on Thursday before Rangers head to Celtic Park for another Glasgow Derby next weekend.
Suddenly, two enormous games are sitting directly in front of them.
Win both and football being football, the atmosphere changes dramatically. Celtic can put Ibrox behind them, get their European campaign moving and respond to Rangers immediately on their own patch.
Lose both and the conversation becomes considerably more uncomfortable.
McGregor’s “no more goals” message was an admission that Sunday was gone and the only thing left to do was limit the damage.
Celtic cannot afford to carry that feeling into Thursday.
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One Response
McGregor was shockingly bad, at one point moving aside to allow the shot at goal. His best days have been gone for some time now, and today was more like liability territory.