Given what he’d just presided over, it would have felt improper to have questioned Martin O’Neill’s phraseology shortly after full-time at Ibrox.Offering no excuses for the non-performance of his side, the Celtic manager described the afternoon as a ‘wake-up call’.It was a nice headline-grabbing line, one which would have ticked the box on most other occasions.The trouble was that it suggested that the atrocious display by Celtic was an anomaly which had arrived completely out of the blue. It wasn’t.A little over a fortnight earlier in Linz, O’Neill’s men seemed dead to the world as they let a 4-0 aggregate lead over LASK slip through their hands.After seeing the plethora of chances they’d given up in domestic matters go unpunished, that was the night when the wake-up call arrived. Ibrox was merely a reprise.Both capitulations had much in common. In Austria, a midfield of Callum McGregor, Mika Baur and Benjamin Nygren lacked physicality and the ability to break the lines. At Ibrox, unsurprisingly, the same combination demonstrated the same limitations. Martin O’Neill is looking for a reaction after Celtic’s limp performance against RangersWhen combined with questionable goalkeeping, meek defending and a punchless attack, a comprehensive derby defeat was inevitable.Back in April, following a dreadful defeat at Tannadice, O’Neill thought long and hard about what was working and what wasn’t, about who he could trust and who he couldn’t.The solutions he came up with saw his side chalk up seven straight wins to claim the title and two more in the Scottish Cup to lift the double.’We had to just accept the fact we played very badly on the day and had no excuses,’ he said.’So, the point between now and the end of the season is to find the fluency we’d like to have in the team.’Between loans, transfers and retirements, 13 players with first-team football are now no longer at the club from that day on Tayside while ten have arrived.You might say that the make-up of the squad has changed, but the issues are the same.While the side can look good at times, it still coughs up too many chances. And when it encounters adversity, there’s a tendency for the roof to cave in.’I think it’s everything,’ O’Neill offered.’I think it’s structural, I also think it is to do with mentality, as I always think football is.’And it’s to do with bedding in some new players at the time.’But here now with the players we have, we have to try and galvanise the club. Celtic were outfought by Rangers in the 3-0 Premier Sports Cup defeat’We were beaten in the game on Sunday and we were well below par in the match, in terms of wanting to really battle with Rangers as much as anything else.’So, that’s something we’ll have to overcome.’Conspicuous by its absence amid the influx of signings was the physical midfield presence Celtic managers have craved since the time when Methuselah was a boy.Yet, it’s still incumbent on O’Neill and his coaching staff to find a combination that works from the options at their disposal.And, as talented as they undoubtedly are in their own right, the trio which O’Neill fielded both in Austria and at Ibrox is plainly not it.Asked if any manager was always looking for the right combinations, O’Neill said: ‘I think that’s always the case.’And while the question’s asked about tactics and formations, you always question that.’Sometimes you even question it before the game starts, but definitely afterwards.’The situation was exacerbated at Ibrox by Celtic’s work off the ball – or, more pointedly, the lack of it.McGregor certainly didn’t miss the target when he said that he felt the team were only defending with six players. That didn’t say much for his estimation of the willingness of those ahead of him to track back.’I think that’s right,’ said O’Neill. ‘I think the team, collectively, has to do the work.’You do the work going forward, and you do the work coming back.’I’m not saying that wasn’t the hallmark before, but certainly since they’ve come back in these spells, that’s been it.’And I think, genuinely, it’s been a hallmark of the teams that I’ve managed.’They have to work hard. It doesn’t mean that you can’t lose games. You can lose matches.’We might have won 6-2 (against Rangers) 100 years ago and then got hammered in the next game.’But by the time that we had reached Ibrox, we had got enough confidence within ourselves that we could see that one as just a really, really bad day.’Now, time will tell whether this was just a bad day.’It’s surely not a question of whether O’Neill changes things against Ferencvaros this evening. It’s who he trusts going forward and what shape he feels suits them best as a collective.Fresh from a dash to London to get a visa, Camilo Duran is available. Playing the Colombian in his preferred role just off the main striker might just be the boon the struggling Kasper Hogh needs.’He’s coming back from the injury he sustained against LASK,’ O’Neill said of the Dane.’He’ll be fine. He’ll score goals for us this season.’There are no obvious solutions on the left-wing. With Yang Hyun-jun still away, Seb Tounekti made no appreciable impact against Rangers. A rare start for James Forrest is the only alternative.O’Neill has another big call to make in goal. Sam Johnstone played well away to St Johnstone but was all over the shop at Ibrox. Viljami Sinisalo could return in goals after Sam Johnstone’s shaky Old Firm showingViljami Sinisalo, who hadn’t done an awful lot wrong before being dropped at Perth, would be right to feel aggrieved.’Now I’ve got goalkeepers wanting to fight for the position,’ said O’Neill.’At some stage or another, one will probably take over.’In training, Vil wants to be it. He wants to be the man. His training has been really good.’O’Neill knows better than anyone that the reaction to losing heavily to Rangers is never pretty. When it comes in the wake of a European exit, the noise is amplified.By the time these two vital matches in four days have taken place, the discourse of the past four days will either feel a tad hysterical or – if the right answers aren’t found – may be a sign of things to come.’It’s not to say when we’ve won some matches this season that everything’s been rosy. Far from it. We’ve had to battle through,’ O’Neill said.’It’s a disappointment. We disappointed ourselves, we disappointed the fans in the game and we just have to rise to the occasion.’We’ve got two matches in which to do so before the break, two big games for us, which will not be easy. But we’ve done it before. We’ll get ourselves right.’