Martin O’Neill’s Celtic beat Dundee United with ease less than two weeks after Wilfried Nancy’s side capitulated at Tannadice.
Celtic battered Dundee United 4-0 after a blistering first-half almost put the game out of sight in the first 45 minutes.
Goals from Hyunjun Yang and Arne Engels settled Celtic down and never let Dundee United breathe, in a performance that was so far detached from Nancy’s reign, that many fans will believe O’Neill has a magic wand.
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Two more goals from Benjamin Nygren and Daizen Maeda put the result to bed as Celtic now sit just three points from Hearts.
So what did the Celtic manager tell the players before the Parkhead kick-off, that instilled instantaneous belief in the Hoops first team?
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Martin O’Neill just ‘simply’ told his players to win vs Dundee United
Was there a masterplan or even some magic instructions delivered from O’Neill as he prepared the team to exact revenge for the Tannadice defeat?
There wasn’t as O’Neill said what he told the players was ‘really simple’.
O’Neill told Celtic TV, “It’s a really simple message to the players, you have to win. Get back into winning ways.
“It won’t be easy. Players, when you lose a few matches, lose a little bit of confidence. So I know I mentioned that there before, but all of those things go together, and just trying to win today.”
What Martin O’Neill reminded the Celtic players of before big Dundee United win
This Celtic team was absolutely bereft of confidence after a horrific run of six defeats in eight games under Wilfried Nancy.
To combat that, O’Neill shared what he ‘reminded’ the Celtic team of just prior to kick-off, and it’s absolutely clear that he inspired the entire team.
O’Neill continued, “I wouldn’t worry too much about [results] under me, I was there for a very short period of time.
“But there are a number, and I keep reminding them, there’s a number of these players here who are big winners who have won all the time here at the football club, you know.
“So it’s a strange thing to be in a situation in January time chasing when, generally speaking, you are probably out in front.
“So this will obviously test all our mentality here at the end of it all. It is whether we have the ability, whether we get the will-power and to fight back from adversity, and thankfully we have.”
Celtic climb back up to second place in the Scottish Premiership table just three points behind leaders Hearts who play Dundee at Dens Park tomorrow afternoon.
The pressure is back on the Tynecastle club who famously lost belief in Tayside at Dundee in Celtic’s famous title win in 1986.
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