O'Neill on 'difficult' week, Celtic confidence & fan concerns

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Old Firm derby at home to Rangers (12:00 BST). Here are the key points from the news conference: Celtic are "raring to go" despite "difficult" defeats to Rangers and Ferencvaros in the past five days. O'Neill later adds: "The players are capable of turning it around." Confidence is "far from rock bottom" and O'Neill insists: "We're still in the lead in the league. And if we can win this, we can extend the lead. If we don't, going into the international break, we're still going to be in front." O'Neill acknowledged the crowd's "frustration" with the team's ponderous build-up play on Thursday night and wants the team to be a "bit more inventive". While Celtic could go eight points clear or have their lead cut two cut before the international break, O'Neill says it's "too early in the season" for the game to be season defining. "It's not a thing that you would look forward to going into an international break on three successive defeats, if that's the case. We're going to try and remedy that and try and put that right." New signings who featured at Ibrox last weekend "shouldn't need many more lessons" in what is required to play for Celtic. O'Neill is "genuinely not sure" if a 4-4-2 formation - which Celtic switched to at half-time on Thursday night - is the way to accommodate all their best players but says: "In the short term, if it is for the team benefit then that's something we could look at." He insists Celtic, having traditionally played a 4-3-3, must be able to "improvise" tactically. On having his tactics and team selection questioned, O'Neill says: "That's the nature of the game. Honestly, the minute you lose a football match, you will be asked, and I don't see why I shouldn't be asked. I can get a bit tetchy now and again, sometimes I have to apologise for that." Asked if he understands fans' concerns over the team's direction, O'Neill responds: "Yeah, absolutely. I also get the fact they might be asking why the team has been led by a 74-year-old man." The Celtic boss "very much" expects Rangers to play the same way as last weekend and, on the Ibrox side's tactics, adds: "Why would they want to change a great deal if they won the game?"