Tony Mowbray called on his central defenders to "step up to the mark" or be replaced after more ropey defending from Celtic resulted in a 2-1 defeat to Old Firm rivals Rangers at Ibrox.
Mowbray has tinkered with his central-back pairing all season and for the trip to Govan he drafted in Glenn Loovens to partner Stephen McManus, with Gary Caldwell consigned to the bench.
However, Celtic, who have lost early goals to Hearts, Dundee United and Rapid Vienna in recent weeks, found themselves two goals down after only 16 minutes as former Parkhead striker Kenny Miller grabbed a double.
The visitors were handed a lifeline when Sasa Papac fouled Celtic's Chinese debutant Zheng Zhi inside the box and Aiden McGeady scored from the spot but Rangers survived a second-half onslaught.
Mowbray said: "The central defenders at our club have to stake a claim and show me they possess quality week-in, week-out to take this club where we want it to be. But that is all over the pitch, everyone has to step up to the mark because if we want to win the SPL more often and be a power in Europe, we have to develop and if the individuals can't step up to the mark then we will change them.
"Centre halves like to find the guy they can play alongside for 40-odd games or however many games you play in a season. It's not the case at this moment because there are no two who are doing particularly brilliantly. They must stake their claims, so that one of them is going to sit on the bench all season alongside me because the other two are keeping clean sheets and doing their job."
Comment 1 - 5 of 5
No manager should be trying to put the blame of a loss down to the players1 It is his job to motivate them! If he cant do that he should nt be a manager! I can see us finishing third this year as we will lose goals at the back very early on in games. Then there is the forwards, 4 years ago scott mcdonald would nt even get on the celtic bench now he is our main man! How sad things have become!
oor 3 centre backs are @#$%,they get foon oot everytime
caldwell has been @#$% ever since he got sent off against norway,sayin that he played ok until he got sent off,he was winning a few headers in that game but hes been too shaky even colin samuel ran him ragged a few times
loovens tries to play ppl offside all the time wen they are not,lucky rangers never pounced on that but it will happen one day
mcmanus all over the palce ,hes a ball winner sumtimes n thats it
the goals will come but the defence has to stand up now,no messin about
c'mon the hoops
When Kenny Miller scores two goals against you, you know you're pish!!! The reason Mowbray has 'tinkered' with his centre back pairing all season is because none of them are any good! Loovens, Caldwell, McManus and O'Dea would struggle to get a game in the English Division 1 so why should we have to put up with them. As soon as Caldwell began making his contract demands I would have put him on the bench and kept him there until January. Then I would have shown him the door. Samaras was on loan from Man City for a year, so Strachan knew he was useless and yet he still bought him!!! The Celtic board need to open their wallets. As it is, it will be difficult to attract decent players to the club because, come the transfer window, we will be all but dumped out of Europe.
It's time for a clear out Tony. You did it a West Brom when you got rid of Robson's failures and you got promotion out of it. Why not do the same now. I mean what have you got to lose?
Tm should'nt have loaned out o'dea,is he any worse than the 3 centre backs weve got just now
oor centre backs are training against mcdonald,killen and sammy,bring back a sutton or a hartson to fling these bums around in training cause thats wot they need
pens or not sumtimes u get them sumtimes u dont cant deflect that away from school boy defending
BOARD MUST SPEND IN JAN cant be naive like last jan window
get it sorted tm u were a centre hawf urself
c'mon the hoops
None of the above defenders are up to the mark they must be replaced giving such easy goals away my granny could have scored.They have had many chances to up their game.
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account