Martin O'Neill tackles Celtic's four key issues head on - including Kasper Schmeichel future and his tracksuit

Manager’s return gets real with non-negotiables against Dundee United

Here we go again. The third instalment of Martin O’Neill’s long association with Celtic begins on Saturday afternoon when Dundee United visit in the Premiership.

On December 3, it was the other half of Dundee in town. Celtic won 1-0 to bring down the curtain on an eight-game interim spell in charge that gleaned seven wins. O’Neill left the team joint-top of the league alongside Hearts.

The situation is much graver now. The miserable 33-day tenure of Wilfried Nancy has put Celtic on the back foot. They are third, six points behind Hearts, with 18 games left to play. Rangers are right in the title mix too. Motherwell and Hibs are snapping at their heels.

Throughout much of O’Neill’s previous spell, there was a twinkle in the 73-year-old’s eye, an acceptance that he was in the building for a short, sweet period of time. He had a sterner demeanour on Friday ahead of the United match. The Northern Irishman will be at Celtic until the end of the season. He will either depart in the summer a champion - or despondently after a season of sheer tumult.

“It will feel strange again, like it did previously,” said O’Neill when asked about his return to the Celtic Park dugout. “Even more strange because I am back again. It’s daft really - but we have to find a way to win the game.”

He did throw in a moment of amusement on the whereabouts of his tracksuit amid rumours it was auctioned off by his former striker John Hartson. “I am hoping that Stephen and Hughie the kitmen will resurrect it from the ashes,” he smiled. “I bet they burned it!

“It could have been auctioned off, so I need to have a word with them. Maybe they have copped a few bob off it. That’s a good point. I need to go and check their pockets!”

Will Celtic stick with a back three?

O’Neill lifted the Lennoxtown training base earlier in the year and he will need to do so again. Celtic are at a low ebb. Their last outing was a 3-1 defeat by Rangers that put the final nail in Nancy’s coffin. Parkhead seethed with rage a week ago and while O’Neill will be afforded a warm welcome, as the man himself noted, only three points will do.

The manager tried to be coy when asked whether he would revert to a back four. Such was Celtic’s defensive dysfunctionality, it would appear madness to stick with Nancy’s 3-4-3 system - even if O’Neill’s most successful teams in his first spell operated with three in defence.

“I don't want to make too many adjustments and things like that,” O’Neill said. “It'll be a bit like when Brendan [Rodgers] left, I don't think we changed that much. I don't think we did. Again, getting back to the point, there are some things that I think that I would do as a manager that even Brendan wasn't doing. It doesn’t mean I was right. Brendan had the success, so who's to say?

“Just very tiny adjustments. Not to complicate things with the players, so they're not going on with five or six different instructions on the field. Honestly, as a player, I could never cope with it. I couldn't cope with it. Brian Clough, a magician, never gave us new instructions like 24 hours before the game. The things that he preached was real simplicity. So, that's the way I would go about it.”

One of the best players under O’Neill earlier in the season was Liam Scales, who found himself quickly out of favour under Nancy. “I thought Scalesy was great for us,” remarked O’Neill. “I can only go by what happened in my time. He was brilliant. There is a fair chance he'll find himself back in, with a wee bit of luck, unless he's dreadful again. I thought he was brilliant for us, but everyone to their own.”

There have also been calls from some Celtic fans for the removal of Kasper Schmeichel in goal. The 39-year-old Dane has been criticised by fans for recent performances. Those dissenters won’t get their wish, with O’Neill admitting he is a fan of the keeper and that he is yet to build up a proper knowledge base on his deputy Viljami Sinisalo.

“I don't know enough about his counterpart, the young Finnish lad, who is a very, very fine lad,” explained O’Neill. “He didn't play in any of the games that I had, but he played against Livingston.

“Kasper's got a lot of experience, I think a really, really terrific goalkeeper. Like everything else, you have to keep proving yourself. And this is it, I now, back again, have to do the same thing. And it's not a throwaway line, it's absolutely true. And this idea that people don't have to, you know, I don't see it.

Celtic’s big saves are remembered

“So, if I can get, let's say in terms of just getting Kasper back to what he did for me, and that's very, very short term, that would be fine. He made some big saves for us, big moments, you know.

“We had a big save against Rangers in the semi-final, he made a big save at one-each out in Feyenoord. Big save when the boy’s through, makes the save again. Those are the things he's good at.

“I think just getting players back to – that sounds as if it’s been a major change – but really just what he did during my time.”

Oh how Celtic fans pine for that time. It is clear O’Neill needs new players but in the immediate term, taking care of Dundee United is all that matters. As the veteran coach himself knows, there is little margin for error now.