Aiden McGeady has questioned the mentality and fitness of Martin O’Neill’s Celtic squad after watching a four-goal aggregate lead disappear against LASK, with the winger particularly baffled by the number of players struggling with cramp in a game that came off the back of a free weekend.
Celtic travelled to Austria holding a commanding advantage in their Champions League play-off tie but surrendered it as LASK completed a remarkable comeback to send the Hoops into the Europa League instead. For a club with our history in Europe, that kind of collapse cuts deep, and McGeady wasn’t shy about saying so.
Speaking on Go Radio, McGeady zeroed in on something that should worry everyone connected with the club: the physical state of the players well before full time. There had been no domestic fixture the weekend before the second leg, so freshness shouldn’t have been an issue. That’s precisely what made what he saw so hard to explain.
“There was no game at the weekend, so to see that many players going down with cramp after 60 minutes… it shouldn’t be happening,”
McGeady didn’t stop at the physical side. He linked it to something deeper – a mentality issue, players he felt were, in his words, almost taking the easy way out. He was careful not to single out Colby Donovan unfairly, saying he didn’t know the extent of what forced the midfielder off, but noted it looked like little more than marks down his shin. “I don’t think that’s enough to go off, if that’s me I want to stay on,” he said, adding that the collective performance felt weak and, in his phrase, scared to actually take LASK on.
A First Leg That Flattered Celtic
McGeady’s criticism extended back to the first leg too. Everyone had been talking up Duran, Hogh, Donovan and Nygren after that win, but McGeady wasn’t convinced it was the complete picture – pointing out that Callum McGregor himself had since suggested the team weren’t actually that good even in the first leg. Three wondergoals, McGeady argued, can put a shine on an average performance that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
For a full breakdown of how the tie played out, our Celtic vs LASK play-off coverage and team news from the tie are worth revisiting. The wider fallout from dropping out of the Champions League is covered in our Champions League exit analysis.
Celtic’s road now runs through the Europa League rather than the Champions League, and questions over fitness, mentality and preparation under O’Neill aren’t going away quietly. Mon the Hoops – but there’s work to do.
