Wilfried Nancy under intense scrutiny at Celtic ahead of Rangers derby

Wilfried Nancy faces intense scrutiny at Celtic after losing five of his seven matches since being named permanent manager, with pressure mounting ahead of the Rangers derby. His side have been beaten by Hearts and Dundee United in the Premiership, Roma in the Europa League and St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup final.

Two league wins over Aberdeen and Livingston offered respite, but Celtic were then outplayed in a 2-0 defeat at Motherwell amid audible anger from travelling supporters. Celtic sit three points behind leaders Hearts, and Rangers would join them on 38 points with a Parkhead victory, raising the stakes for Saturday's fixture.

At a lengthy media conference before the match, Nancy passionately defended himself and his methods, appealed for patience and acknowledged the poor results. He said he did not have a pre-season and accepted that if he did not win games he would be in trouble: "I didn't have the results we wanted - it's a fact, I cannot deny that." Nancy has switched the system used by the interim manager, moving away from a 4-3-3 toward his preferred 3-4-3, and admitted the team are not yet at the level he expects.

He said he has "suffered" because some players are not ready to execute his ideas and asked for time to implement them. He rejected suggestions his tactics are to blame for the poor run, saying only one of the 15 goals conceded under him was a system failure and that many goals have come from set-pieces.

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Sports, United States, Celtic, Wilfried Nancy, Rangers Derby, Scottish Premiership, Football