“You saw a team and a team of individuals.”
Captain Callum McGregor was scathing in his assessment of Celtic’s League Cup defeat to Rangers.
The Hoops travelled to Ibrox for a quarter-final tie against their Old Firm rivals unbeaten in seven domestic games this season.
And McGregor offered no excuses for the 3-0 defeat: “It wasn’t us. The difference between the two sides was you saw a team and then you saw a team of individuals as well.
“Rangers were a team and you could see that.
Sunday 20th September 11:00am
Kick off 12:00pm
“We looked like a team of individuals who like to do our own thing and play when we got the ball, not necessarily run when you don’t have the ball when that’s the thing you can’t do when you come here.
“You can’t defend with six players, it’s impossible.”
The cup exit comes after Celtic’s Champions League qualifying defeat by Austrian side LASK, where they surrendered a 3-0 first-leg advantage and then a 4-0 lead to be beaten 5-1 and 5-4 on aggregate.
Celtic collapsed in the second leg of their Champions League qualifier against LASK
They host Hungarian side Ferencvaros in the Europa League on Thursday before Rangers travel to Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, live on Sky Sports.
“We’ve put ourselves under pressure, we need to respond on Thursday and then we need to respond on Sunday but we very quickly need to get to the level,” McGregor added.
“But trying to get the message to everyone that we have to be the team that we want to be.
“We need to find a way to do that quickly because we lost a big game against LASK and we lost another big game on Sunday and it’s not acceptable.
“There’ll be other big games throughout the season and eventually you have to win one if you want to be considered a good team.
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Celtic manager Martin O’Neill reacts to their 3-0 defeat to Rangers in the League Cup quarter-finals
“If we want to be a good Celtic team then we’ll have to win the big games. One thing we’ve always done is win big games and turned up when it mattered.
“So far this season we’ve been bitty in games and we need to fix it.”
Rangers beat Celtic in the first Old Firm of the season
With the memories of Austria still fresh in his mind, McGregor feared the defeat could have been even more damaging.
He said: “Yeah, you don’t want fours and fives for sure.
“As soon as the goals go in, then I’m saying to Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales, no more goals.
“We need to just tighten this up. Of course we always want to get back in the game, we always want to be a team that, even at 3-0 down you still want to have a chance.
“But you have to understand the circumstances as well, well beaten at 3-0 with good goals against you, but if it starts to run at fours and fives then you’re talking about a different ball game.”
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