His "laborious" Celtic side made it six wins out of six in the Scottish Premiership by sneaking by St Johnstone, but his much-changed side far from had it all their own way. After handing a debut to on-loan Wolves goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, a first Celtic start to midfielder Oliver Sorensen and a rare run-out for centre-back Dane Murray - in addition to recalling winger Sebastian Tounekti and striker Kasper Hogh - the veteran manager would have hoped to have had a better idea of new-looking squad as he "juggles" players and positions. Speaking after Mika Baur's first goal for the club delivered victory, O'Neill told BBC Sport Scotland; "I'm not sure what to make of it, really," while admitting to Sky Sports "we're still well short of it".
With the first Europa League game - at home to Ferencvaros next Thursday - sandwiching a double-header against Rangers, in the Premier Sports Cup on Sunday before the league a week later, it appears O'Neill has some issues to address for a mammoth week. Despite the tasty triple-header which awaits the reigning champions, O'Neill was insistent on the importance of the match at McDiarmid Park in prioritising their title defence. It made his fives changes even more surprising.
Among them, the omission of Camilo Duran was the most surprising given his blistering start in a Celtic shirt. Much of the pre-match chat centred on whether the returning Hogh and Duran would play together as strikers or if the Colombian would shift back out wide. No one really considered him being dropped to the bench.
And it appears unlikely O'Neill will be tempted to do so again. "Our main man only came on in the last 10 or 15 minutes, so it gives you food for thought," the Northern Irishman said after his side failed to add to their tally despite upping the ante after Mika Baur's goal early in the second half. "[Duran's] just been class.
He looked tired in the game on Saturday, but I'm not surprised for the amount of things he does for us, both with the ball, which is terrific, and also the work that he does off it. "He's second only to Daizen Maeda in terms of closing players down. So, I wanted to try and see if we could do without him, and the answer is probably not." How much will Celtic miss Asian Games-bound Yang?
As delightful as it is to have a diamond like Duran, O'Neill won't want his side to become overly dependent on the 24-year-old in the way they previously did with the now departed Maeda. Hogh, a poacher, is the polar-opposite to livewire Duran and, with the service as poor as it was from the wings on Wednesday, it was always going to be a night of struggle for the Dane. He touched the ball just twice in the box before the break, but O'Neill did hint at the club's record signing needing to do more.
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