SPL: O'Neill's Celtic are boring - McGarvey

Former Celtic star Frank McGarvey claims the present title-winning side are more ‘‘boring’’ than the team which last one back-to-back championships 20 years ago.

He played a key part in bringing the championship to Parkhead in 1981 and retaining the crown the following season.

It has taken 20 years for the Glasgow giants to repeat that feat with Martin O’Neill’s men needing to beat Livingston tomorrow to clinch their second successive championship.

But while the former Parkhead favourite believes the current side have the same attitude of Billy McNeill’s men - he also insists his team-mates were more exciting to watch than the current Celtic side.

McGarvey said: ‘‘The one thing the two teams share is that they have a good attitude and play for each other.

‘‘But I would say the team I played in were much more offensive and had a bit more flair.

‘‘We had Paul McStay, Murdo McLeod and Tommy Burns in midfield and they could all got forward and scored goals.

‘‘Davie Proven was brilliant and would make goals and me Charlie Nicholas and George McCluskey up front could all score goals.

‘‘We had great attacking options, but I feel the Celtic team just now don’t have the same attacking options.

‘‘Paul Lambert and Neil Lennon don’t really score goals from midfield and Didier Agathe and Alan Thompson don’t really score a lot of goals either.

‘‘The goals either come from set pieces, Henrik Larsson and whoever plays in the hole behind and with him, but they haven’t go a lot of attacking options.

‘‘They are more boring than the team I played in, but Martin O’Neill can only go with what he gets.

‘‘When they are winning 1-0 he’ll settle for that. There’s been an awful lot of 1-0 results, but he makes sure that they secure the three points.

‘‘In the team I played in once we got a goal we wanted two and once we had two we wanted three and I would say that’s the difference between the teams.’’

McGarvey, however, believes O’Neill’s current side are more solid at the back than his Hoops team ever were.

The former Scotland international admits they do not give much away and are better equipped to do well in Europe than McNeill’s side ever were.

‘‘They’ve got a better team defensively than the team we had because we leaked a lot of goals,’’ added McGarvey.

‘‘That’s why we couldn’t do anything in Europe, but the team now don’t give a lot away so they have got a better chance in Europe than we have.

‘‘It’s just as important for me not to lose a goal than to actually score a goal and Martin O’Neill has that mentality.

‘‘This Celtic team are more defensive and don’t have to score so many goals to win games.’’

McGarvey claims O’Neill should now try to bring some flair to the club if he is to build on last season’s success in Europe.

The club need to find a new Lubo Moravcik and McGarvey believes if they can sign someone in the same mould as Manchester United’s Paul Scholes and another forward they will get to the latter stages of the Champions League.

‘‘This is a confident Celtic team, but I do think they need a few more offensive players especially a young Moravcik from midfield,’’ said McGarvey.

‘‘They need a player who can play in that hole and create things and also score goals. They need that desperately for the Champions League next year.

‘‘They will do well in the Champions League because they have played the whole season together, but they will struggle to score goals.

‘‘They have had an extra year of playing together so they will become better. Teams just don’t gel overnight.

‘‘They will do very well in the Champions League if they can get another good forward or a really good midfield player. If they can do that before next season they will do really well.

‘‘A player like Zinedine Zidane would do but he’s going to cost over £30m (€49m), but the type of

player you are looking for is a Paul Scholes, he would be ideal.

‘‘That kind of player that can get back and up the park and score goals and create things. That kind of player would take Celtic to a higher level.

‘‘They’ve got to look at younger players and build the team and the thing I like about Martin O’Neill is he buys people with right attitudes.’’