Cameron Carter-Vickers says Celtic need to establish an ‘identity’
Cameron Carter-Vickers insists Celtic have to find an identity as they lick their wounds from a second Old Firm defeat in eight days.
The 1-0 William Hill Premiership loss to Rangers at Parkhead on Sunday, which left Martin O’Neill’s side two points ahead of the Gers at the top of the table, came on the back of a 3-0 Premier Sports Cup defeat at Ibrox the previous weekend.
In between that double blow was a 3-1 defeat to Hungarian side Ferencvaros in their Europa League at Parkhead and the setbacks have left O’Neill under pressure and his squad reeling going into the international break.
Searching for reasons for the three damaging results, Hoops defender Carter-Vickers said: “I think consistency – consistency of messaging, consistency of ideas, consistency of effort.
“And, if you start there, it might not be right straight away, but in my experience, especially at this club, you always seem to get there in the end, so I think that’s what we need to focus on.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily players or who’s on the pitch.
“I think it’s just an identity and an idea of how we want to be as a team.
“And like I said, I’m not just talking about a shape, I’m not just talking about where players need to stand.
“I am talking about that, but I’m (also) talking about just everything as the whole – effort, positioning and just the way we want to be as a team.”
Asked what the biggest common theme had been in the three defeats, the centre-back said: “I think they’ve been different, if I’m being honest.
“I think last Sunday we lost too many duels, you can never win a football match if you lose that amount of duels.
“Midweek, I think you’re playing a level up in opposition, if I’m being honest, and I think there’s parts of the game that were better, but they punish us with the chances they had.
“And then on Sunday, we won more duels than we did last Sunday, I believe.
“But again, probably weren’t consistent enough in the way we wanted to play and how we wanted to attack the game throughout the 90 minutes.
“There’s probably not much in the game, but they took a chance and we didn’t.
“It’s been tough, but there’s been tough times since I’ve been here and we always somehow find a way to come out the other end of them.
“It’s still early on in the season, there’s what, 31 games left in the league, so still a lot of time to improve and start picking up performances and results.”
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