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Neil Lennon

Discussion in 'Ex Players' started by romeo9535, Apr 17, 2016.

Discuss Neil Lennon in the Ex Players area at TalkCeltic.net.

  1. Sgt Neppers*

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    Just As culpable with formation and the time to change it yesterday. Needs to be brave. Also needs to think about phasing out of Brown and bringing in Soro more. Also, as unpopular as it may be. Calmac could be dropped for a few games as he's off the boil.
     
  2. Dublin Celt

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    Agree has to be 352 on those plastic pitches. But I've watched us plenty times even at home in the last 24 months where we dominated possession at 4231 but created very little

    Sent from my GM1903 using Tapatalk
     
  3. oh bhoy

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    is lenny for real ,finishing touch or final ball ffs we were never in a position to get a final touch or get a final ball in to eddy or whoever .we never looked like scoring as the build up play was slow,predictable and sloppy as * .christies goal aside there was zero threat from set plays and even when we started hoofing it into the box we hadnt the quality to send it remotely near one of our own players
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2020
  4. honda Gold Member Gold Member

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    1-0-0-10. Keeper should just punt it up :56: tactic won me a game on football manager once. Sign me up as coach.
     
  5. Mr Shelby Moderator Moderator Gold Member

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    I hope that we go back to the 3-5-2 sooner rather than later. I dont think teams can cope with us playing that. Whereas we saw last season with the 4-2-3-1 that it was a * of a lot easier to play against. The Huns especially when up against us.

    Has he mentioned a CB at all yet either? As in we are looking at one?
     
  6. Seán Mac D Gold Member Gold Member

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    I think we should do a 'horses for courses' approach.

    On wide, grass pitches - eg. Parkhead, Hampden - I still think the 4-2-3-1 is our best formation. They need to stretch out more to block the wingers and wing backs, which in turn makes more space for the likes of Christie, Eddie and McGregor in the middle to do the damage.

    On pokey, plastic pitches though it shouldn't even be up for debate any more, it's got to be a 3-4-1-2. The surface just isn't conducive to play slick passing football or intricate wing play. It's not pretty but we have to go a bit more industrial, get the ball up quicker, work on knock downs and try to catch these teams out before they can get into their 2 banks of 5 shape that ends up impossible to break down.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2020
  7. Ciaran_67

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    There’s a suggestion that we were off training for 4 days prior to the Kilmarnock game. If that is true, surely some questions need to be asked here.
     
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  8. SuperZidane

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    Absolutely. I'm afraid that I worry about the tactical ability of Lennon/Kennedy to change things when they are going wrong. The matches against Livingston, the BetFred Cup final (when FF saved us) and the 2-1 defeat to Rangers spring to mind. In all 3 of those games, it was obvious after 5 minutes that our tactics were wrong but we just stayed with them for 90 minutes. It goes back to the 2-0 defeat to Rangers in May 2019 when we were 1 down after 5 minutes and just got hammered for the next 85 and were unable to change tactics.

    As someone else has pointed out, its easy to look good when you're winning 3/4/5/- 0.

    We were truly awful - 2 real attempts on goal including the goal (which any decent GK would have saved). I hate that pitch but it's the same for all visiting teams and not an excuse.

    Frankly Lennon's substitutions usually don't impress me as they are almost always like for like and rarely game changing. However, the ones on Sunday made no sense at all.

    I also wasn't impressed with Lennon's comments where he seemed to be blaming the players to a degree (I hoped he had stopped doing that after losing the dressing room at Hibs).

    I'm certainly not happy with Lawwell as we should be strengthening in this season above all and are being outspent by Rangers.

    However, it's all very well buying players - not much use if the tactics are wrong and the coaches are unable to change them and alter the game.

    I'm not impressed with Gerard but the coach Michael Beale has an excellent reputation. Rangers are also spending money - I think the league will be a closer run thing this year than in previous years.

    If Bayo has gone - we should have a big striker (if not Fletcher - someone else). At least we could have put them on with 15 minutes left and got some high balls in - instead we just persisted with the same s*** tactics that weren't working.

    From what I've seen of Ajeti - he's a tidy finisher with a bit of pace but, like Eddie, very few of his goals are headers and he's not great in the air.

    We need a big physical centre half, a similar Centre forward and preferably a left winger.

    Celtic should forget this model of signing prospect players for this season. We should sign experienced EPL/Championship players (even if they only have a couple of years left) for these positions.
     
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  9. King of Kings

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    Saw that elsewhere and find it utterly bizarre. We had played one competitive fixture this season after a hugely extended layoff. We played well in that game, but had some very clear vulnerabilities to work on. We’ve got crucial CL qualifiers coming up and are in our 10IAR season.

    I’m hoping it’s not true, because 4 days off at this stage of the season is not what’s needed.
     
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  10. Ak1

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    NL's now got a very difficult unnecessary few days coming up.

    The performance and result at Kilmarnock was bad enough. But to read we went into the game with potentially 4 days off, and with a player jetting off to a 'high risk' country without any knowledge, looks utterly *.

    Rodgers rightly gets criticised for the manner of his departure, his recruitment and his one dimensional tactics. But I don't ever recall him skimping on training.
     
  11. Seán Mac D Gold Member Gold Member

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    I found the 4 days off thing bizarre myself but tried to look at it from the other side of the coin.

    • Some players like Eddie remained in Scotland during lockdown on training programs to maintain fitness
    • The run of games between now and the turn of the year is mental and there's also no winter break this season so the next time they might have proper 'time-off' could be June next year (August if they're playing in the Euro Championships and that's no guarantee as our season will be starting up again)
    The decision to give them time off will come under scrutiny because not only did we drop points but we looked rudderless and pre-game prep normally covers the tactical side.
     
  12. King of Kings

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    Yeah I get that, the decision won’t have been made without good reason, and input from the medical and fitness guys at Celtic.

    The 4 days just seems to be overkill to me, and allows players to do stupid things - like fly of a country on a quarantine list.

    I’m a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to managing players fitness though. If it was up to me they would fly out of pre-season looking fitter than anyone else. They’d then basically be locked in a fitness camp at the first sign of standards slipping. If they performed like we did against Killie they’d be looking at those in Russian gulags or Chinese labour camps with envy.

    The players would soon revolt, and everything would end in disaster, but we would be *-hot for a very short period of time. And everyone would be shredded as *.
     
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  13. Foley1888

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    It is a bit worrying that we don’t seem to learn from challenges e.g. what Killie done on Sunday was a carbon copy of Livi away x2 last year. Although I think that it is hard to split out recruitment and tactics. You may want to play a certain way but if you don’t have the players to do it then what do you do?

    As others have mentioned we need to be looking at holistically what we could do to address these. Once that’s done then the squad needs to be analysed to see if we have the personnel required, if not they become a target whether that’s during a transfer window or planning for the next.

    Examples for me is since we lost Dembele we lack a physical presence option upfront, now we are in our 4th window since and we tried with Bayo (which was a flawed approach With CEO and lack of scouting amongst other issues). We have been needing another CB for a while got Julien but have now moved on Jozo so are back to having limited options.

    The more you hear from people involved at Celtic, I do wonder how much input Lennon has on a lot that goes on. Duffs interview on Open Goal highlighted just how much input Kennedy seems to have. If Rodgers had stuck around longer I wouldn’t have been surprised if John Kennedy was given a Head Coach role with someone acting as Director of Football.
     
  14. GreenLeanMean

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    Apparently it was just the two days off players had after the game not four.
     
  15. Markybhoy

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    He's only a decent manager in the overall scheme of things. So there will be matches where he sets the team up wrong, picks the wrong team, or makes the wrong changes. Sunday was one of those days.

    I'm not interested in hearing excuses about the pitch etc. Just call it what it was - a * performance.
     
  16. JC Anton Get yer, hats, scarfs badges & tapes

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    Difficult to change the team and formation too much after the Hamilton game.

    Hopefully, its a lesson learned.
     
  17. Mickmac Gold Member Gold Member

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    I'm not sure why he's reverted back to 4231 when we were having so much success with 352 just before the lockdown. I think it might be something to do with Ely being fit again and him not being easy to fit into a 352 - he's not a WB so could only play the attacking MF role depending on how we set up the 3 CMs. He's too good a player to drop but where should he play and who else should be dropped if not him? Same on the right - do we drop Frimpong or Forrest? I assume Elhamed would be the 3rd CB. I agree we should play 352 but these are the dilemmas.
     
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  18. Foley1888

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    I think this is exactly it despite the system working better, with the absence of Griff and Moi coming back in to the fold as well as the Forrest/ Frimpong choice it is easier to go back to 4-2-3-1 but as games like Sunday show not the right call.

    Moi has got talent but I wouldn’t say he couldn’t be dropped. I would have had him off at half time at the weekend as he was very poor, constantly slowed everything down and gave the ball away.

    We badly need another first team ready striker. Klimala may prove good business in the long term but I find his signing strange, spending so much money to sign a prospect whose game doesn’t really match ours, when we were crying out for a first team ready option. It was a bonus to get Griff back in January as without that I am not sure we would have had such a good run of form.

    However where 3-5-2 maybe doesn’t suit those listed above for me it got the best from Eddy, Griff, McGregor and Ntcham. I am pretty sure Christie could operate well in such a system and Elhamed as a RCB domestically would be a good additional attacking option as well as a capable defender.

    Given the volume of games we face with no winter break this year and increased subs, having a pool of at least 16 outfield players who could all be considered fairly regulars and being fluid in formations would be a good model to strive for. When we are on wide grass pitches playing wingers like Forrest, Moi and MJ(when fit) but on tighter surfaces away from home going two up top.

    I always remember Fergie doing this at Man Utd around the time Park, Fletcher and Hardgreaves were there (late 00’s). They didn’t play every game but tended to be brought in for tough fixtures where there was a battle to win for the later 2 and Park was often called on for big games at the expense of more flamboyant players.

    There are a few glaring issues that we need to address for a successful season,

    1. We need more First team ready options in attack to support Eddy (assuming he stays).
    2. We need a physical presence in defence preferably a Left sided option so Ajer(if he stays) can play on the right of a 3 and rotate with El Hamed.
    3.We are over reliant on a 35 year old Scott Brown to do all the ball winning and grafting in our midfield. McGregor & Ntcham are both very capable footballers but neither can tackle to save themselves leaving an ageing Brown exposed (Copenhagen 2nd half over there and both Rangers games in December are good examples), particularly when you have the likes of Forrest, Moi or MJ playing in wide areas because none of them tackle either. If the management don’t see Soro as ready then we better get looking for someone who is.
    4. Greg Taylor is a capable defender but when a team sits in like Sunday he has no ability to go past a player and make room to get a cross in. To play 3-5-2 we need someone who can play that Left wing back role. Being honest in domestic football we could probably get away with a left winger playing there as they will spend more time attacking than defending but we don’t have many options there at present as Moi is not a typical winger that gives you width and that is what is needed.
     
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  19. celticfan01

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    Why are we giving guys like Boli who aren't even getting a game having 2 days off training for? Surely he can be doing something more constructive at Lennoxtown to improve his ability rather than being expected to be stuck in a Glasgow apartment doing * all. Young dumb and full of * + loads of money = mistakes
     
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  20. Venomspawn82

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    I feel sorry for him. There's so much pressure this season. 10 in a row, covid and restrictions, lots of fixtures, both european football expected and another treble possible. All of this is just unreal pressure and now both Griffiths and Boli. Man needs every bit of support. I would have diarrhea daily if I was him.