Danny Rohl has to learn from Martin O’Neill lesson in Rangers vs Celtic
Rangers passed up a prime opportunity to deal a crushing blow to Celtic in Sunday’s Old Firm derby.
Ibrox could scarcely believe what they were seeing after the opening quarter of the game, as an outrageous Youssef Chermiti brace had Rangers two nil to the good after 26 minutes.
However, 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline, and Celtic were able to reach half-time with the match still salvageable.
That’s precisely what they did too, as a Kieran Tierney header on 56 minutes set the stage for a second half monopolised by the Hoops, before a controversial penalty call enabled Reo Hatate to equalise in added time.
Martin O’Neill showed his managerial experience vs Rangers
It wasn’t by fluke that Celtic looked a totally different team in the second half: it was through the nous and experience of Martin O’Neill.
Seeing that his side were largely outclassed in the first half, the 74-year-old Celtic boss made a double substitution at half-time, bringing Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti on, replacing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Junior Adamu respectively.
Both of these players, Hatate in particular, made a big difference for Celtic in the second 45, executing their obvious instructions to step onto Rangers players higher up the pitch, and to bump up the energy levels.
O’Neill’s tactical tweaks worked a treat for Celtic, as they pushed Rangers back throughout the second half, rarely affording them the time or space to put passing moves together as they did in the first half.
In the end, it was a well-deserved point for the Hoops on the basis of their second half improvement, and it’s a painful lesson that Gers boss Danny Rohl must learn from.
Danny Rohl got out-coached by O’Neill in the second half
As Celtic continued to grow into the game after half-time, Danny Rohl and his Rangers side started to look ever-increasingly uncertain of how to stem the tide.
Tierney’s goal should’ve been the catalyst for Gers to push higher up the field and take the game to Celtic once again, but instead, they continued to drop deeper and deeper into their own half.
Rohl’s decision to replace Ryan Naderi for Mohamed Diomande left Chermiti extremely isolated in attack, and resulted in a disjointed Rangers press that Celtic defenders were easily able to play around.
This only served to make Celtic’s route to the Rangers box even easier, and so every time the Hoops came forward, it looked like they were going to score.
Gers also had some tired legs as the game went on, but Rohl only made two subs, instead leaving the likes of James Tavernier, Jayden Meghoma, Nedim Bajrami and Bojan Miovski on the bench.
Surely on reflection, Rohl will wonder whether that was the right decision or not, as introducing the experience of Tavernier and the energy that a Bajrami, Meghoma and/or Miovski could’ve brought, would’ve surely helped push Celtic back.
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