I couldn't believe what I was seeing from Celtic during Sunday's Old Firm with Rangers.
Look, the defeat is one thing. Derbies are won and lost, as are cup games, and it was always going to be tough at Ibrox with no travelling fans, as it will be for Rangers in similar circumstances next week.
But where was the effort? Where was the intensity? Celtic were awful from the first whistle. Rangers seemingly won every battle on the pitch, and winning individual battles is the least you can ask from players, especially in a derby as big as this one.
Players Celtic have relied on to bring quality shrunk under pressure. Camilo Duran seemed to pick up a knock, but even before that he wanted nothing to do with a physical encounter, despite having not shied away from it so far this season.
Kasper Hogh was one of the worst players on the pitch. There for his quality hold-up play and touch, it was like passing the ball to a brick wall. Everything bounced off him, and it was clear Celtic needed someone to hold the ball and take off the pressure a little.
The midfield was non-existent, with Mika Baur struggling to get any sort of grip on the game. Callum McGregor didn't look up for it other than an early big challenge - a captain needs to get hold of his players when they are collapsing like they did here.
The centre-backs did okay, but Colby Donovan had a stinker in terms of his play, but he at least showed some fight and should have been sent off, and what was Kieran Tierney doing for the second goal? He sees two centre-backs try to win the ball, which isn't ideal in itself, and he decided to join them to ensure three defenders are out of the game, and the ball goes wide to his man, who is now unmarked.
Last but not least, Sam Johnstone looked every bit as rusty as he did during the week. We covered how his big save masked his poor distribution throughout the week, but Martin O'Neill made a grave error in throwing him in here, based on very little but the fact he is an experienced keeper.
Johnstone's distribution was even worse here, and Rangers had clearly noticed it during the week, because they targeted him with a press, which he could not seem to figure out until it was too late.
Shambolic from Celtic, and they are going to have to find a way to get up for the rematch next weekend, with Rangers now having their tails up and believing they can bully this Celtic side, like they did today.
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