Ahead of a crucial week for Celtic, the last thing the Hoops needed was some disruption.
There was an argument to be made that Martin O’Neill should have remained in charge for the game against Hearts and the League Cup final next week.
The other argument, however, suggested that new manager, Wilfried Nancy, needed to get his feet under the table as soon as possible in a bid to assess the squad ahead of the January transfer window.
Well, his tenure got off to the worst possible start, losing to Hearts 2-1 and surrendering ground on the league leaders.
What made things worse was Nancy’s behaviour on the touchline. We aren’t ones to judge too hard, but the fact that he was clipped moving little magnets around on a whiteboard in the dugout with his team losing sent alarm bells ringing.
Nancy discusses his Celtic tactics
Celtic have traditionally played in a classic 4-3-3 in recent years but the Frenchman tweaked things against the Jambos, starting with Kieran Tierney in a back three, with Sebastian Tounekti and Yang Hyun-jun playing at wing-backs and a four-man box midfield.
Evidently, it did not work and rightfully, Nancy was quizzed about his tactics post-game.
The new Celtic boss said: “To be honest, in the first half we changed the system. I would say in the second half it was the same system. After that, when we wanted to push, it was not the system that we started with.
“So for me this is more about how we can deal when teams are really low. The centre-backs for example, when they had the ball, recognise the moment to play a little bit quicker, recognised the moment to play in between. The intention was here. These are now the nuances that we need to improve.”
Nancy continued: “This is more about how we can connect a little bit more. When we connected, we had opportunities to break them. But second half, we didn’t connect. When we conceded the second goal, we started to put in cross and cross and cross. We needed to combine a little bit more, to attack the box with numbers because they are really good defensively with big tall guys.”
McInnes reveals how Hearts beat Celtic
What should be really concerning for the Bhoys is just how easily Hearts were able to pinpoint the way in which Celtic would play under Nancy.
Usually when a new manager arrives, things are a tad unpredictable for the opposition but that was not the case for Derek McInnes and his side on Sunday.
Speaking at the conclusion of the match, he said: “We have studied the last two or three days, watching a lot of Columbus Crew and what they want to do and expect from their players.
McInnes continued: “We felt well prepared for that and it meant we needed to fill the middle of the pitch with bodies. Celtic have got a lot of good players in that central area, so we needed to make sure we were nice and solid through that part of it.
“We tried to play in the spaces between the outside centre-back and the winger because it’s quite a big distance at times,” the Hearts boss said.
This was a crucial game for Nancy, not just because it was his first in charge, but because the Edinburgh side moved three points clear at the top of the Premiership.
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