Liam Scales has accused Philippe Clement of playing right into Celtic’s hands on Saturday – while skipper Callum McGregor has told fans he knew Rangers would ‘unravel’ in the Old Firm cauldron.
The champions brought the curtain down on 2023 with a derby day win over their city rivals which has opened up an eight point gap at the top of the table. The title twist came at the end of a difficult December during which Celtic suffered back-to-back defeats against Kilmarnock and Hearts – as new Ibrox boss Clement closed in on top spot.
But Scales believes the Belgian’s tactical game plan at Parkhead was tailor made for the home side. The defender said: “When teams come and press us and try to get tight to us I feel as if it suits us. We can play through them and it suits the sort of players we have. It’s a nice difference from playing against a low block, which we do a lot in the league.
And Scales’ verdict has been backed up by McGregor who was caught on camera discussing Celtic’s pre-match mindset going into Saturday’s showdown. After turning in a man of the match performance, McGregor then gave a stinging victory speech to supporters in a corporate hospitality suite – insisting that Rangers struggle to deal with the intensity of derby day.
.A video of the interview has subsequently been posted on social media with McGregor saying: “The boys were outstanding. We spoke before the game about bringing that intensity. We feel like when we play against them they don’t deal with the intensity.
“If you get after them and press them and make them kick out the pitch then very quickly they will start to unravel.”
And McGregor dished out a savage put down when referring to Clement’s run of 16 games unbeaten going into Saturday’s clash.
He said: “They’d been in a good spell but they hadn’t played anyone yet.”
But McGregor went on: “We had some critics to answer over the last couple of weeks.
“All I can ask of the boys is that they go out there and give everything and they did that with bits of quality – Kyogo and Paulo Bernardo’s goals top class – but in terms of the running and work ethic of the team was first class.”
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