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The Brendan Rodgers Blueprint Celtic Rediscovered at Ibrox

Watching Celtic at Ibrox on Sunday felt like a turning point for Martin O’Neill.

He deserves credit for grinding out results across two spells this season. There have been games where the performance dipped but the points still came. That can only carry you so far. At Ibrox, when he turned to Reo Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti, it felt like something clicked.

The second half was a return to patient possession. Call it the horseshoe of death if you want. The ball moved side to side, Rangers were shifted across the pitch, and Celtic waited for gaps instead of forcing them.

It was a far cry from the quicker, more direct approach that has seen balls launched up towards Junior Adamu. That worked in Stuttgart for spells. It has not looked natural in Scotland.

This squad has been coached for years to dominate through control. Ange Postecoglou drilled it in. Brendan Rodgers refined it. Wilfried Nancy pushed it too far at times and the players looked unsure. On Sunday, O’Neill found the middle ground.

From half-time onwards, Celtic dominated at Ibrox while 2-0 down. That isn’t normal in this fixture. To take control in that stadium, with the crowd up and the game slipping, tells you something about the method.

The draw did not come from chaos or luck. It came from control. If Celtic are going to win this title, it will be through that kind of authority on the ball.

Hatate was central to that. He demanded the ball in tight areas and freed Callum McGregor to step higher. Once Celtic settled, Benjamin Nygren started doing the hard yards off the ball. Rangers could not press in the same way because the ball was moving too quickly.

Tounekti benefited as much as anyone. Starting wide, he was able to receive the ball deeper and drive Celtic up the pitch. His end product can frustrate. The finishing and final pass are not always there. But his ability to carry the ball at speed into dangerous areas is rare in this squad.

When Celtic were patient and built properly, he had space to run into rather than chasing hopeful passes. That pushed Rangers back and kept the game in their half.

Even Dane Murray, who made a mistake earlier, looked more comfortable once the shape was right. He could step out and play, rather than defend wave after wave. Viljami Sinisalo helped as well. His calm use of the ball from the back kept the tempo steady.

Chaos football has had its moments this season. It suits Hearts. It suits Rangers when games break up. It does not suit this Celtic team. When they slowed it down and trusted the system, Rangers had no answers.

The first-half hammering felt like the warning that had been coming. The second half felt like the reminder of who Celtic are meant to be. If O’Neill leans into that patient, possession style over the run-in, the title race shifts again.

Celtic’s next three fixtures are so important, now that a serious gap has opened up at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.

With Motherwell breathing down Celtic’s neck in fourth place, O’Neill could be in the embarrassing position where, if the Bhoys drop more points, then the Fir Park club could leapfrog them in the table.

That would be the ultimate embarrassment and would also heap more pressure on the Celtic board, who will feel the backlash should the Hoops finish outside the top two places this season.

Daizen Maeda’s place in the Celtic team comes into question

It seems inevitable that Maeda is going to leave Celtic this summer and the transfer speculation has affected his performances on the pitch, while others feel that the Hoops would be weakened without him.

One fan wrote on TalkingPoints: “Maeda has the speed and the ability but he just looks uninterested. He should have won the game for us today with the chances he got. Definitely needs to be benched.”

However, another fan said: “Maeda makes a massive impression in every game. Without Maeda we would be in danger of being overrun. He certainly isn’t as effective as he was scoring goals for the greater part of the 2nd half last season. However, he is almost certainly one of the first names on the team sheet.”