Neil Lennon

Lawwell knew Lennon was an unpopular appointment, that’s why he used the treble treble euphoria to appoint him.

That’s why when this goes * up Lawwell should be removed too.

He’s got far too much control of this club. There should’ve been someone to challenge him when he wanted to bring Lennon in. * there should’ve been someone to at least make him look at other candidates.

 

Apparently he has walked

 

Where you.seeing/hearing this???

 

Says who

 

Nothing worse than an unsubstantiated rumour.

 

No doubt that fake superscoreboard or similar *

Don't tell me? Tommy McIntyre as caretaker....

 

Don’t * tease me like this.....

 

Of course he did, he is not in a wheelchair

 

No danger of him walking, he needs pushed out the door unfortunately

 

The comments from McGregor were worrying. He described the team as 'disjointed'. I refuse to blame Neil Lennon for everything as some do on here. The players are grown adults and they arent giving 100%, Edouard for one needs a * boot right up his * *. His attitude and body language is wrong, he is playing for himself and not the team.

However if the players believe the team is 'disjointed' then that rests with the manager and the players know that, meaning they will lose faith in his ability to be successful. Sunday v Motherwell is huge, Ive backed Neil Lennon since the day he became Celtic manager and will continue to do so, however if we get beat on Sunday and fall 12 points behind the huns then I cant see any way back for him.

 

https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/2020/11/06/a-decisive-defeat-for-a-celtic-legend/

 

I'd probably regain a little bit of respect for him if he did actually walk saying it's not working and it's for the best of the team. However the longer he stays the more (and I HATE to say this) not only am I * of with him in charge but I'm actually starting to dislike him.

The longer he is here with things the way they are the more he is tarnishing his reputation with the club and and fans.

 

Here’s where the problem lies, we have a very young squad, bar a couple of older players most are 18-23 which is far from “older”, these players are still kids imo and need someone they can respect and learn from, Lennon has lost the respect and tbh he doesn’t have much to teach anymore. The thunder has gone as are the crowds, this makes every mistake visible, as the cameras and sound pick up everything.

 

A fleeting glance at that and I noticed 3 grammatical errors, not to mention his cryptic * that leaves him plenty of wiggle room to claim he was right should a change of manager come to pass.

It’s clear he had a mole inside the bigotdome years ago but the last few years he has just been embarrassing himself.

 

Come on now, think you’re looking back with rose tinted specs. Yes Gordon has been impressive since returning to Tynecastle and yes he did have some very impressive outings in a Celtic jersey. But let’s not forget the guy made some absolute * clangers, Bayern Munich at home (a game we should’ve won) springs to mind. He was fortunate he was in goal during a period when we had next to know competition domestically, even for 2 years after the scum crawled out of their grave in 2016. There’s a reason the guy was dropped and * Bain took his jersey off of him.......

distance makes the heart grow fonder I suppose.

 

Garbage.

 

2nd sentence he makes an * of it.

Embarrassing indeed.

 

There is a paragraph where Phil has spoken to various people in the coaching word (sic) and they all say the same thing.

Celtic don’t look organised.

Leaving out the spelling mistake that is some insightful stuff from him

 

Wee bit obsessed is wee Philip.

 

Had time to think and take in last night’s performance/shambles/score line. Whether it was Sparta Prague A or B Team, right now is not even up for consideration.


“Once, is a one off. Twice, is a coincidence. Three times or more, it is deliberate.”

I have mugged myself off in recent weeks/months and made excuses for what I have seen happen and know is not right during a game. COVID is not a good excuse. Nor are injuries, bad luck, and other variables. I probably did not want to believe or hoped it was going to pick in the following games. Last night was enough for me to accept that what is going on is not going to be sorted without changing the squad of players or the manager. I believe the change we need to see is the coach/manager. He has tried to call out the players once and made another attempt last night, with regards to culture. What is the culture? The culture which he has been responsible for the last 1 year and bit. The culture that has seen Griff be publicly chastised for his conditioning post season. Boli felt comfortable enough to disappear to Spain for a quickie. And the numerous other rumblings of squad members lacking the discipline to deal with the situation we face.

We are now approaching the last month of this year. And the problems in the pre-season games are still playing out months down the line. We have players who have performed well on a consistent basis, look like they have never played in a game before. Callum McGregor has been a constant 7/8 out of 10 for the last few years. He has been nowhere near that level this season. And for me, its not down to anything of his doing.

Many at the club are happy to tell you, that we are a Champions League club. At this moment in time, we sit as Europa League Cannon Fodder. Off the field, the football decision making has been a * shambles. The board shat the bed when their fingers got burned with Rodgers jumping ship. The safe hands, which we needed at the time. Was given the permanent role, without any due consideration of our potential candidates and the way forward for the whole of the football side of the club.

Domestically, you know what to expect from 95% of the league teams. We have all watched enough of Aberdeen to know how they will go about things. Same with the others. Yet we floundered to a draw at Killie and Pittodre. Huffed and Puffed to wins at Tannadice and Perth.

In Europe, we fell to bits against Frenecvaros. Like we did against Cluj and Copenhagen. Any ounce of an opposition who play with a bit of structure and a knowledge of what to when they have the ball. And it has caused us trouble. We stuttered past Riga and Sarajevo with 1-0 wins in the qualifiers. A good 45 mins against Lille, which we ultimately lost a 2-goal lead through reoccurring frailties.


We cannot defend the counter attack or set pieces. We struggle to produce enough attacking play and goalscoring opportunities to make the former irrelevant. Our play is littered by individual and structural errors. Julien at Rugby Park, Duffy at Pittodre, El Hamed against Frenecvaros stick out. And these same errors occur game after game.

General play is a mess. Duffy was heralded as a key piece and a coup. The man to bring some defensive know how to the game. A man who was touted to bring goals from set pieces. Only we did not know that the goals would be conceding not scoring. Duffy is below average with the ball. He struggles with pressure and short to medium range passes. He gets closed down on his touch and when they do not press, they drop off and take away the easy ball forcing him to make passes he cannot complete. We see the occasional success with a switch of play. But for a team that likes to play and progress from the back, he hampers the whole teams play. Duffy for his supposed defensive qualities, cannot deal with being dragged away into wide areas and which exposes his lack of pace. And when beat in these areas, he cannot recover.

This further compounded with our reliance on pushing the full backs up the field. When we turnover the ball in attacking areas, one simple pass down the line and we are in trouble. We then have a scramble defence to try and prevent losing a goal.

We have Brown and McGregor drop deep to compensate for not having enough ability to progress the ball forward. 3 sometimes 4 bodies trying to progress the ball from deep or near the halfway line. Brown is off the pace and his contributions so far amount to dropping short for the ball and passing it back to the nearest defender. He even took the ball from Bain last night and gave him it straight back. Never looked to turn into the space to his right or for another pass that was not backwards. We compromise our attacking play, McGregor is more dangerous to the opposition 20 yards from their goal, than he is in our own half. Short combinations around the box and third man runs from deep onto through balls, we have seen on a handful of occasions and the last one earned us a goal against Aberdeen. And in domestic games, when 9 time out of 10 we play against teams camped in their own half. With McGregor or Brown dropping deep, we have less players to advance the ball into areas which cause teams to make decisions. Something to bring them out of their shape and make them worry.

The more advanced players are left isolated and not close enough to help develop the play. How many times have we seen Eddie left with 4 or 5 bodies around him? Same happened against Dundee United and it happened again last night. The Griffiths goal last night, we had 5 bodies in and around the box that passes could have been played. After that we went back to the previous. The Aberdeen game on Sunday, we had a few deliveries into the 6-yard box from Frimpong and Laxalt with no-one attacking them. We should have a minimum of 3 players in or attacking the box. Instead we Mo El and Christie in the wide areas, with Frimpong and Laxalt in the same space. Mo El and Christie should be narrower, leaving the wide areas for Laxalt and Frimpong to use their abilities in 1 v1 situations. It also makes the opposition decide how they deal with it. Do they sit in and defend the area or shuffle across and try to prevent it? If it is the latter, it should leave spaces for in the middle and also for the switch of play (Mo El chance in the 1st half) and the chance to attack the space.

Our pressing or our current interpretation of it, is another issue. We seen issues with this in pre-season against Nice and PSG. When you press, its not done on an individual basis. Its done as a group. And we do not do it as a group. And it happened numerous times last night, Sparta played it so easily last night. One instance Eddie shut down the centre half, who popped off a short pass to his right. Mo El then went to close him down. And the Sparta player played the pass to a player in the space Mo El had vacated. The rest of the team were 10 yards off the play and Sparta progressed towards our half in 2 passes.


Our play and set-up is disjointed. Our players are not performing to their capabilities. And we are still trying to find solutions to problems we have had for months.

We have Motherwell on Sunday and the International games coming up. In my opinion it gives us time to move on from Neil Lennon.