Martin O’Neill has given an explanation why he started Luke McCowan in yesterday’s 3-1 victory over the Ibrox club at Celtic Park.
The Celtic midfielder was at fault for the opening goal of the game after losing possession which led to Mikey Moore giving theRangers the lead after nine minutes.
However, McCowan more than made up for his error, perfectly timing his pass to Arne Engels who cut it back to Yang Hyun-jun for Celtic’s equaliser.
The 28 year-old was then replaced at the break for Sebastian Tounekti who made a real impact when he came on the pitch.
The decision to start McCowan raised eyebrows before kick-off, but the Celtic manager revealed the tactical thinking behind the move after watching his side recover from an early setback to secure a vital 3-1 victory.
‘It was tough for him,’ O’Neill on McCowan’s first-half display
“What we thought is that with [right-back] Alistair [Johnston] getting fitter each time he plays and the ability to get up and down and support people, we just thought that Luke might have been able to cut inside,” O’Neill explained via Celtic’s official YouTube channel.
“As it turns out, he made the pass for the equalising goal. It was tough for him because it was hard to get a breath. He hasn’t started a game for a little while and the pace was really hectic.
“So, from that viewpoint, yeah, we just changed it at half-time. But the reasoning behind it was the very fact that Alistair can get fitter, and he can join in.
“And if Luke was coming inside a couple of times, he could thread little things through to Alistair on the overlap. That was the thought.”
‘There was a calmness’
Celtic now head into the final stretch of the Premiership campaign knowing victories over Motherwell and Hearts would secure the title.
O’Neill admitted he sensed composure within his squad at the interval despite trailing during the first half against theRangers.
“I think that at half-time in the game today, I just thought that there was a calmness,” O’Neill said. “I said to the players, ‘Listen, we’re doing fine. We will get opportunities. We have to take them.’
“And if we can keep Rangers at bay, I thought that they came on strong in the latter stages of the second half. But by that time, I suppose we had forced the two goals and were in front.”
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2 Comments
Shocking decision to play McGowan there, and as with Nygren, one great goal or assist does not make up for utter s..t for the rest of the game. But you can’t beat getting lucky, so who am I to talk football, eh?!.
It was a massive call from MoN to start McCowan, especially when not many,if any saw that coming within our support?
I certainly didn’t, and looked to have backfired spectacular in the giving away of the first goal.
But one of the many highlights yesterday, was McCowan getting redeemed by his fantastic pass, in setting up our equaliser.
Will give McCowan credit for not going into hiding during that first half, despite to many things not actually coming off, for himself to benefit the team. So was the right call to change things back, to how I expected ourselves to start from the beginning?
I know beforehand, it was debated whether we should start Maeda through the centre or out wide left?
Personally thought, Maeda left, with kelchi centre, and yang right, was the way to go for ourselves imo?
But couldn’t see MoN changing Maeda, through the middle, which proved to be the right decision.
As a result, it potentially left ourselves more open in the wider areas, especially where both Seb and forrest, aren’t the best at the dirtier side of the wide areas in tracking back in the defensive side of the role, for which Maeda and Yang still remain our strongest options in that all round wide areas for ourselves imo?
Big risk admittedly, in using McCowan and AJ, especially without playing together before, and McCowan not a natural wide player. Despite the goal given away, it still worked better than I was expecting, and the differences in the second half were massive and game winning in the end?
So brilliant game management shown from MoN in the decision making department for yesterday, which blew the scum away and couldn’t handle the changes when we actually applied them for our advantage imo?