IT is fitting that in the days following a Celtic performance that could aptly be described in the Glasgow parlance as murder, that an almighty post-mortem is underway to ascertain what went wrong in the desperately disappointing defeat to Rangers.
The official line from players and management seems to be that the abject showing was a blip born of the assorted Covid related calamities which befell several members of the Celtic squad, with Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie, Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed all missing out. Personal scrutiny of Neil Lennon would therefore be harsh, when it was personnel issues that hamstrung the Celtic manager on the day.
There is a huge element of truth in this theory, of course, and on paper at least, the form of Celtic going into the game was imperious.
For a significant section of the Celtic support though, those eight wins in a row papered over some pretty significant cracks, and masked a malaise that has set in across the Celtic squad so far this season.
This group will point to the match prior to that run, the home humbling from Hungarian side Ferencvaros which saw Celtic tumble out of the Champions League at the qualifying stage for the third year in a row, as being indicative of the drop in standards throughout the club which has not only cost them a significant amount of cash, but also jeopardises the quest for 10 in-a-row.
As often is the case in football when you have two camps so diametrically opposed and entrenched in their views, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle ground.
Celtic have been disappointing on more than one occasion this season, and they have dug out wins - such as the late triumph at St Johnstone – which their overall performances perhaps didn’t deserve. Even when they despatched Ross County by five goals to nil in Dingwall in September, Lennon himself saw plenty of room for improvement in what was actually an oddly disjointed performance to accompany such an emphatic scoreline.
So, while Lennon and his backers would justifiably dispute accusations that he is managing a slow decline in the Celtic team, he accepts there is so much more to come this term from a group of talented players who are currently performing as less than the sum of their parts.
The leak of Lennon’s team for the game on Saturday, coupled with the disciplinary infractions of the like of Leigh Griffiths and Boli Bolingoli, have added fuel to the fire that the Celtic dressing room is being run more like a holiday camp than an elite sporting environment.
To level such an accusation at Lennon though because of a perception that his methods are of the old school, is to do him a great and egregious disservice. Lennon and his backroom team are far more progressive in their approach and demanding of their players than they are often given credit for, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that it was under his guidance much of these same players roared back last season from a similarly disappointing Old Firm defeat in December to be 13 points clear by the time the campaign was prematurely called to a halt in March.
Neither though should heads be buried in the sand when it comes to the clear issues that must be addressed in the Celtic team and squad if a similar reaction is to be provoked this time around.
Chief amongst those is ensuring that all of his players and backroom team are pulling in the one direction. That is when such a defeat and the barrage of criticism which accompanies it can be a useful galvanising tool, but Lennon must also get the players whose heads he himself said had been turned during the transfer window to get their focus back on the task at hand.
Edouard is the priority among that group of course, with Lennon stating after his dire turn at St Johnstone that he hoped the closure of the transfer window would help the prodigiously gifted Frenchman regain his focus.
Others, such as Olivier Ntcham and Kristoffer Ajer, would do well to note that a big-money move away from the club in the future will only come about if they first perform in a Celtic jersey.
On the field, even when Celtic’s missing stars return, there are issues over the 3-5-2 formation to which Lennon has become somewhat wedded to since the mid-point of last season. It is little wonder that the Celtic boss favours the set-up given the results he has achieved with it, but predictability has become a concern.
Rangers were able to easily draw out Celtic’s wing-backs and exploit the space in behind them on Saturday, and it wasn’t until five minutes from time that Lennon finally altered his approach.
It isn’t quite time for panic stations. Celtic are still capable of going on long winning runs as they have recently shown, and their players have shown themselves adept at reacting positively to adversity in the past.
Added to that, as Lennon has stated, they have possibly the best squad in terms of strength in depth that they have had for many years. It is now up to the Celtic manager to ensure that those players react to this setback and get back on the march towards history, rather than continuing to sleepwalk towards disaster.
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