Martin O'Neill has admitted Celtic failed to land a replacement for Arne Engels in the summer transfer window. The Hoops sold the Belgian playmaker to West Ham in a £22million deal and targeted Torino midfielder Gvidas Gineitis as his successor, but talks over a transfer fee broke down.
Scrambling in final days
O'Neill was left scrambling in the final days of the window, with Oliver Sorensen arriving on loan from Parma. The Dane has yet to convince, and O'Neill says Celtic have badly missed Engels' power and physicality in the middle of the park after defeats to Ferencvaros and Rangers.
"I think that in an ideal world it would have been greater to have the likes of Arne Engels and that type of running power, and that's really what we were trying to do when we knew that Arne was going to leave," he said. "So it didn't materialise, but that's something that we would certainly have to look at."
Running power missed
O'Neill added that Engels was always likely to leave, and that the club looked at a number of players who could provide a like-for-like replacement. "For one reason or another, it didn't materialise. So yeah, he's been a loss in terms of that running power he can give you."
Celtic have been outmuscled and overrun against LASK, Rangers and Ferencvaros, conceding 11 goals in three games in the process.
January work underway
O'Neill confirmed that work is already underway to secure a defensive midfielder in the January transfer window. "You'd have to. Very much so. January seems a million miles away but it comes round relatively quickly. You'd have to do something like that there."
O'Neill has yet to settle on his best team as he searches for a way to fit his top players into his starting XI. He switched to a 4-4-2 at half-time against the Hungarians, pairing Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran up front, but it failed to affect the outcome.
He could ditch his favoured 4-3-3 system for the test against Rangers but insists the summer's recruitment wasn't based around a specific system. "Not necessarily. If you're going to play whatever system you want, you need strong running players in your side," he added. "You definitely need that there. You need a bit of strength. That was something that I thought was lacking from last season."
"You're trying to get the right person in to do that and sometimes you get frustrated in the transfer market if it doesn't materialise. But that's really something that didn't necessarily mean fitting just one system, it just meant players being able to play whatever you do."
"Really, for all of us talking about this and thinking that we're in this modern era, it is about players being able to break systems down. I watched Manchester United the other night, who were 2-0 up and coasting [against Brighton in the Carabao Cup], and allowing a team to come back into the game because they make mistakes at the back that you wouldn't be expecting Premier League teams to do."
