MARTIN O’NEILL has challenged his gamers to point out that they’ve what it takes to chop it at Celtic Park.
Sunday’s dismal defeat at Ibrox noticed the Parkhead membership knocked out of the Premier Sports activities Cup on the quarter-final stage.
The three-0 humbling got here arduous on the heels of the capitulation in Austria to LASK which noticed Celtic eradicated from the Champions League play-off after being 4 objectives up on mixture.
O’Neill males face Ferencvaros within the Europa League opener on Thursday night earlier than a house conflict within the Premiership with Rangers on Sunday.
And the veteran, who’s seen ten new gamers arrive this summer season, feels all involved now face a defining check of character within the two video games previous to the worldwide break. ‘That’s precisely what it’s all about,’ mentioned the Celtic boss.
‘It’s about desirous to have what it takes to be a Celtic participant, as is the case throughout the best way.
‘What does it take? It takes massive character. It’s a must to settle for the truth that even at house, you misplace the ball two or 3 times, the group can get on you. It occurs all over, but it surely appears to be magnified (right here). You’ve bought to have the ability to battle that.
‘The nice Tommy Burns as soon as mentioned it’s simpler to play in opposition to Celtic than to play for them which is a very good level.
‘I had by no means had the luck to play for Celtic, so I don’t know that facet, however I really feel it and I’ve managed the staff.’
Martin O’Neill needs his gamers to show they’re adequate for Celtic
Second finest all through a one-sided derby, O’Neill admitted that it’s been arduous for him and his gamers to course of the character of the defeat.
‘I’ve by no means been in a position to shake issues off early,’ he defined. ‘I’ve been saying this and it’s been a message to gamers all through my managerial time that defeat ought to damage.
‘And when you’re smiling or laughing or joking about an hour after the match is over, then I don’t suppose it’s one of the best sight on the planet and I don’t suppose you’ve handled the sport with the seriousness that it deserves.
‘So, that’s the purpose. I feel that ought to be the message anyway to the gamers. They need to damage and a few of the newer gamers.
‘The sport itself was as you’ll count on an Outdated Agency sport to be performed, excessive depth and I feel it was an eye-opener to a few of the newer lads.
‘So, you’ve bought to search out out about gamers, about whether or not they’re able to coping with these video games. Hopefully, over the course of time, they are going to be, however yeah, it was a shock.
‘I feel final 12 months after we performed Rangers a few occasions at Ibrox and we introduced in some new gamers who discovered them troublesome matches, I wasn’t stunned.
‘I used to be stunned that they could have been stunned on the time, in order that was the purpose. However yeah, we’ll decide up from there.’
In the meantime, O’Neill has revealed Camilo Duran is offered to face the Hungarians regardless of lacking coaching yesterday.
Referred to as up by Colombia for the primary time, the ahead needed to journey to an embassy in London to get a visa.
Camilo Duran ought to be obtainable to face Ferencvaros after travelling to London for a visa
‘They gave us two different dates, one among which was a sport. Which may have been troublesome. The opposite one simply didn’t swimsuit us in any respect,’ defined O’Neill.
‘I feel the appointment was about 8 o’clock within the morning, so he needed to go down the evening earlier than.’
Requested if it had disrupted his preparation, the supervisor mentioned: ‘It doesn’t assist. It’s a bit like (Haissem) Hassan on Sunday.
‘He needed to go away the resort, issues that occurred at house.
‘His sleep patterns have been finished for in that sense. We determined to not begin him within the sport.
‘Duran’s match sufficient simply to have missed the day coaching. We’ve finished some set-pieces that he want to see, however he’ll see them tomorrow morning within the positions that hopefully he can be in or not.’
