NEIL LENNON SHOWED HE DOES HAVE TACTICAL NOUS

One of the main sticks his detractors use to beat Neil Lennon is that he is often found wanting tactically, and that he has been left behind by the modern game.

The evidence used to back up this theory in part has been the way that Rangers have been able to stifle Celtic so effectively in Old Firm matches of late, and how Lennon has failed to combat Steven Gerrard’s 4-3-3 system which saw them dominate the three Glasgow derbies prior to Saturday.

Lennon himself addressed this on Friday, admitting the issue was causing him a headache, but it turned out that his 4-4-2 diamond worked a treat in the opening hour as Celtic took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths pinned down the Rangers full-backs, the diamond in midfield suffocated the opposition three with David Turnbull sitting on Steven Davis, and the Ibrox side were forced to resort to long balls which were eagerly gobbled up by Kris Ajer and Nir Bitton.

The tactical tweaks gave Celtic the platform to dominate, they just didn’t make that dominance count.

YOU HAVE TO SCORE WHEN YOU’RE ON TOP

It’s one of the oldest football cliches in the book, but for good reason. Celtic simply had to turn their supremacy in the opening hour at Ibrox into something tangible, and their failure to do so cost them almost as much as Bitton’s red card.

Yes, they came up against a formidable foe in the shape of the inspired Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor, but there were countless occasions when Celtic’s pressure around the Rangers area failed to produce a goalscoring chance or a shot on goal. Which leads nicely on to our next point…

CELTIC NEED MORE QUALITY FROM THEIR FULL-BACKS

While Lennon’s tactical set-up was sound and had Celtic well on top, one of the flaws in the system as it turned out was the reliance it places on the full-backs to provide the attacking width.

Not that Diego Laxalt and Jeremie Frimpong weren’t willing runners, providing an outlet and finding space down the flanks time and time again just as planned.

The problem was that unfortunately, time and time again they failed to produce a telling final ball, and for the majority of the game they didn’t even give their forwards anything to attack at all.

Laxalt particularly was visibly frustrating the likes of Edouard and Griffiths as he failed to clear the first man with a cross, even when he had time and space, while Frimpong too had them looking skywards in exasperation at times as he failed to pick out their runs.

It seems as though the Celtic players are adapting to this new system well, but if it is to truly succeed then the full-backs will have to sharpen up their final ball considerably.

WILL RECENT RESULTS AND THIS PERFORMANCE BE ENOUGH TO SAVE LENNON?

Taken in isolation, this defeat and the nature of it would seem like hugely harsh grounds to be questioning the future of the manager. Particularly as Celtic had come into the game on the back of five straight wins in the league.

The problem however, as many fans were quick to point out, is that Celtic shouldn’t really be playing what was effectively a title decider on January 2nd. This season was about making history, and was perhaps the most important campaign Celtic have gone into in decades. That they are all but out of the title picture before the Christmas decorations have been taken down is a damning indictment on the start they made to the campaign.

It was the period between mid-October and early December where they clocked up just two wins from 12 in all competitions, and just one win from five in the league, that may ultimately cost Lennon his job as well as costing Celtic 10 in-a-row.

That being said, Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell stood by their man then as the protests mounted outside Celtic Park, so they may hold their ground in the January review of Lennon’s position which was promised, particularly as his side looked to have turned a corner.

Whether it is too little, too late, remains to be seen.

IT MAY BE TIME TO CUT LOSSES WITH SHANE DUFFY

The big defender wasn’t the reason for Celtic’s defeat on Saturday, but his cameo neatly summed up his nightmare spell at the club since his loan arrival from Brighton.

There was the wild challenge on Ryan Kent which could easily have left his teammates two men down, not to mention the fact that he looks a bag of nerves whenever the ball is in the vicinity of his feet. His attempted pass with the outside of his foot which almost set up a second goal for Rangers had all the hallmarks of a man who simply didn’t want possession.

As cruel as it is to see a man who has played at such a high level for club and country reduced to something of a joke figure, that is exactly what his time at Celtic has seen him become within Scottish football.