A win for Celtic ‘changes the game’ says Broony

Celtic suffered a massive dent in confidence after a disappointing 3-0 loss at Ibrox in the Premier Sports cup quarter final last week, before suffering more misery a 3-1 home defeat to Ferencvaros in the Europa league on Thursday night.

The Scottish champions however, go into the clash top of the table, with a five point lead over their bitter rivals, and a win would stretch that lead to a very commanding eight points.

“If Celtic win and they’re eight points clear, it changes the game,” Brown said on BBC Scotland’s YouTube channel.

“Can [ the Rangers] go to Celtic Park and do they exact same thing as last week?

“Celtic now have had a week to understand how that game went. They are going to have to make sure that they match that energy but also match that willingness to go and win the match.”

Brown was impressed with Derek McInnes’s sides shape, and spirit in the Ibrox clash.

“They went after Celtic from the get go,”Scott Brown said. “They looked like they wanted the win more. For him to change his tactics, nobody expected him to do that. That is a very, very good manager to pick that out.”

Brown also pondered Celtic’s tactical plan.

“Martin O’Neill when he was manager [from 2000-05], loved a 3-5-2 and it was fantastic to watch,” said the former Celtic quadruple treble winning captain.

“He had two big guys up front. That was an unbelievable team. He’s not got those players that probably can be suited to a 3-5-2.”

Brown also reckons part of the Ibrox clubs success last week was down to nullifying the influence of his successor of the Celtic captaincy, Callum McGregor.

“Rangers got in their face, they blocked Callum McGregor off and as soon as you block Callum McGregor off and you man-mark Cal, it’s hard for anyone else to go and dictate.

“That’s when you need a [Benjamin] Nygren to drop under, a [Mika]Baurto go and drop under and them do their job as well. You can’t always keep looking at Cal to do everything.”

And Brown believes who starts best could be crucial.

“Rangers were up for the fight,” he added on Sportsound. “The first 15 minutes, it should be a battle. If you can go and win that battle, you can get the ball down.

“Celtic started very, very slow last week. They need to go back to basics, make sure they’ve got the fight, make sure they’ve got the hunger because they’ve got the talent – I know they’ve got the talent.

“You cannot have just one of those days against your biggest rivals, ever.”