'Cat and mouse' - how Hibs hope to counter pressing game of Celtic ace hailed as 'world's best' by Rodgers

The one guarantee for any team pitching up at Celtic Park to face this current incarnation of the team under Brendan Rodgers? If you’re not ready to be pressed with the sort of brutal intensity that might be skirting some of the finer points of the Geneva Convention, you’re hopelessly ill-prepared for the challenge ahead.

As Hibs prepare to take on the Hoops for the third time this season, and their second visit to Parkhead, at least David Gray’s men know what to expect. A non-stop mental and physical challenge from the opening blast of the referee’s whistle to the last knockings of whatever VAR-bloated injury time the officials might add late into the December evening.

Warren O’Hora, a born-and-raised Dubliner who grew up watching Celtic, admits he wasn’t quite ready for the ferocity of back-to-back games against the reigning champions back in August. But he’s learning on the hoof. And at least sounds better prepared for this afternoon’s contest.

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Admitting that the constant harassment from Celtic’s front three had to be experienced to be fully understood, O’Hora said: “It's the intelligence and intensity of them, the way they press, which runs they're making, where do they want the ball put in the box, outside the box.

“There's little things like that that you definitely have to take note of, 100%. Playing a team of Celtic's calibre, it's all about mentality.

“At the end of the day, it's your brain that tends to try to go first. Against a team like Celtic, once that happens, you can be in trouble.

“The staff have reiterated that already. There's no time to switch off in a game like this tomorrow, so we'll be fully focused for hopefully 90-plus minutes.”

One interesting sub-plot of today’s game may involve O’Hora trying to build from the right side of a back three. Also known as Daizen Maeda’s office, with Rodgers publicly declaring that he doesn’t believe there’s a better player in world football when it comes to pressing defenders.

Asked directly about the Japanese forward’s non-stop energy, O’Hora insisted: “You need to use that against them somehow. If he's pressing in areas where he thinks he can come in and nick the ball, it's little things like that.

“It has to be a bit of cat and mouse. You might have to play over them once or twice to maybe get them to drop off sometimes.

“There will be times where you'll press and you'll get it wrong, times when you'll get it right. That happens in every football game.

“Whether it be the left winger from Celtic or the left winger from Aberdeen, there's going to be times where teams will get it right. There's got to be times where teams will get it wrong, and we'll get some joy out of it. We have to back ourselves.

“There's no point in not going out and having a go and feeling that this isn't going to go our way from the first minute. We'll back ourselves and we'll have a go, 100 per cent. We'll go in with the mentality that we want to win the game.

“I’d never been to Celtic Park before as a kid. The first time I've been there was playing for Hibs.

“It's a high-intensity game and it's maybe something that I was never exposed to in my previous career. It's something that I'm learning from.

“The good players are probably better than I thought when I was watching them. You go out and play and you see how much they work on it; how relentless and how ruthless they are.

“It's something that they've been doing for years really, isn't it? But like I said, tomorrow's an exciting game for us. It's a great challenge for us and it's one we're looking forward to.”

Supporting Celtic was pretty much an inevitability for a young O’Hora, the centre-half admitting: “Yeah, coming from Dublin, coming from Ireland, there's definitely a few fans and a few jerseys going through the family probably somewhere. And probably on myself when I was a kid.

“Who'd have been the guys I watched when I was younger? Scott Brown and players like that. I'm not too old, believe me. I'm only 25. It wouldn't have been that too long ago.

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“Obviously it's an iconic place to play. For me personally, it was amazing to walk out and play in such a big stadium, such a big club.

“They’re at the top of the league for a reason. The atmosphere there is amazing and, yeah, it can probably be quite intimidating.

“But we're all footballers. We've got to go to these place, play our own game and get a win, get something out of it.”

As well as adapting to Scottish football following a summer move from MK Dons, O’Hora and partner Hannah celebrated the birth of their first baby, a little girl they’ve called Hadley, in October. It’s fair to say that having a newborn around is putting a few things in perspective.

“It’s probably one of the hardest things I've done,” he admitted, quickly adding: “The best thing that ever happened to me, first and foremost. I put that out there.

“It's a break away from football that maybe I thought that I never really wanted. I always wanted to play football whenever I was a kid. I always wanted to think about football and work as hard as I can on football.

“Then something big changes in your life, like having a kid. It's like some part of the day, there's no worries. There's nothing else going on in your head apart from being a dad. That's what my daughter needs from me sometimes, just to be a dad.

“At this stage, at only two months old, I don't think she understands what's going on at all. She just wants Daddy to be a Dad.

“It's been tough, no doubt about it. My parents have been amazing, and the club have been amazing with me as well. They've been patient with me. It's been the best thing that's happened to me, for sure.

“My daughter doesn't see me as a football player. She sees me as Daddy. It's definitely a form of escape that I didn't think I would enjoy as much.”