{"id":5908,"date":"2026-01-15T04:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5908"},"modified":"2026-01-15T04:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:36:51","slug":"celtic-martin-oneill-calls-for-patience-on-transfers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5908","title":{"rendered":"Celtic: Martin O&#8217;Neill calls for patience on transfers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, former Celtic midfielder John Collins believes an experienced striker could change everything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s hard playing football without a natural centre forward,&#8221; he said on BBC Scotland&#8217;s Sportsound. &#8220;Someone you can hit and you know it&#8217;ll stick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If you&#8217;re a midfielder you can play one-twos, knowing they can bounce it off you. You can&#8217;t do that with Maeda, he likes to run in behind. You can&#8217;t link with him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s up there doing his best, but he&#8217;s not a real centre forward for me. A good centre forward can change everything. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You&#8217;re getting half chances, next thing you&#8217;re 3-0 up. The chances Celtic do create, if you&#8217;ve got a good striker you&#8217;re winning comfortably.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Right-back Julian Araujo has arrived on loan from Bournemouth this month, as Celtic also look to address weaknesses in other areas, amid injuries to some key players too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Becuase while profligacy has been costly at times this season &#8211; especially in the ill-fated Wilfried Nancy eta &#8211; it was not their major problem against Falkirk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They only managed two shots on target and were outplayed in spells by John McGlynn&#8217;s side, who hassled in midfield and worked incredibly hard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As a result, the hosts created the better chances and played some slick football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Callum McGregor was isolated on the ball in midfield, despite Nygren and Arne Engels starting alongside him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Collins believes the team also needs another athletic midfielder and a winger too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Engels has good games and very average games. Nygren comes in and out of games, and lacks consistency,&#8221; the former Celtic assistant said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;One player who always wants the ball is Callum McGregor. Week in, week out he&#8217;s at a level. They&#8217;ve got to get more quality in the central area.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Celtic&#8217;s next league game is a critical one away to Hearts, a match that will help define the destiny of the title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If there are no new faces ready to go by then fans will be furious, never mind the much-loved O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s call for patience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>However, former Celtic midfielder John Collins believes an experienced striker could change everything. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard playing football without a natural centre forward,&#8221; he said on BBC Scotland&#8217;s Sportsound. &#8220;Someone you can hit and you know it&#8217;ll stick. &#8220;If you&#8217;re a midfielder you can play one-twos, knowing they can bounce it off you. You can&#8217;t do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}