Martin O’Neill hailed his Celtic firepower after demolishing Dundee United. But the Hoops boss warned his side they’ll still need to shape up for an uphill task against LASK.
Celts cruised into the Premier Sports Cup last 16 with a 4-0 win at Tannadice. But United had their moments – and hit the bar an incredible FIVE times over the 90 minutes.
O'Neill's Warning
O’Neill said: “The scoreline suggests we were comfortable. In some moments we were terrific and in other moments I felt we were just a bit untidy. We’ll have to straighten that out before Wednesday. I felt up until maybe the third goal that United were never really out of it. They hit the bar and post four or five times so that might tell you something.”
Celtic have smashed nine goals in games against Kilmarnock and Dundee United and O’Neill is convinced his side has more cutting edge than last term.
Goal Scoring Improvement
He said: “It does give you encouragement. I think the centre-forward, Kasper Hogh, he’s linked up well, he obviously wants to get into the penalty area, but he's a very fine centre-forward. He'll thrive on goals like any centre-forward. But overall, yeah, that's something that I felt we missed last season. He's strong. And his play, his hold-up play, he wants to improve that and I think he's doing fine. I think we've got goal scorers in the side. That was always a concern last season. We conjured goals, and we won big games. But Daizen Maeda, almost single-handedly took it upon himself to score the goals, now I think that there are goals from different areas.”
Transfer Activity
O’Neill is hoping to bolster his squad for the LASK clash and is chasing several targets including Blackburn keeper Balazs Toth and Hajduk Split midfielder Niko Sigur. As revealed by Record Sport, Reo Hatate has interest from Panathinaikos while Arne Engels is expected to complete his £22m move to West Ham.
O’Neill said: “I think that we can add to it. Whether that happens before Wednesday is a different issue. We've already announced a squad. I think you can until Tuesday night add another two players. I think in time that we will get them in. But whether we do before Wednesday is another issue.”
O’Neill handed debuts from the bench to new arrivals Mika Baur and Haissem Hassan and the pair are in the frame for LASK. He said: “You can never plan these things. But the idea was at some stage or another that Hassan, maybe in the last 20 minutes he would get on. He has done very little training since the World Cup. At least Mika has trained and played pre-season, so he's more up to speed with things. Of course there's always the concern that somebody just stepping in, straight in, might suffer an injury of some description, a muscle injury or something like that. That's what we have to be careful of. But overall, yeah, at least he got on the field.”
Big Week Ahead
“It is a big week for us. We've got the game on Wednesday and then the second match the following Tuesday. They are big games in every aspect. Champions League qualification matches, everything to go for. Prestige, finance, all that type of stuff. We're trying to be as ready as we possibly can. There is a really big task ahead. They're a very fine side. They're very, very strong. And ideally it would be great if some of the lads who have come in now had a bit more practice with the team in that sense. But it is what it is. We have to be ready regardless.”
