Playing Style

I watch a lot of football from EPL, La Liga and All Celtic Games. One thing that annoys the life out of me is how Celtic seem to be in attacking positions, free kicks, corners, general play and can be 5 yards from goal and within 3 seconds it’s back at our keeper. I’m sure i noticed it in a big way when Rodgers came in but surely with him gone you’d think it would be drilled out the team. Under Lennon the first time was continuous side way passes that was the annoying thing.

 

When Lennon came back I had hoped we would play more direct, attacking football.

It seems like he's just tried to keep Rodgers set up in place though. Like a poor man's Brendan Rodgers.

 

You seem to be implying Brenda's Rodgers created a problem in this celtic team that Neil lennon should be fixing.

It really does take all sorts.

 

Something that annoys me is whenever we do break quickly into a counter attack there's always a pass that goes into feet or gets hit too short that brings the whole thing to a halt.

 

I can see what people see when they say Lennons tried to carry on from Rodgers. If he was 1/2 as good at implementing it we would be in a much better position... But Lennons jst not BR. Watching Celtic under BR was an absolute pleasure. This under NL is an eye sore.
Far from the style of play in his 1st stint as manager.

 

Playing style?







More like...





playing without style.

#LENNONOUT

 

Its a redundant conversation while Lennon's here as he doesn't have the what it takes to implement a playing style, everything just boils down to run more, pass better, head the ball away, score more goals.

 

Lenny ball in full effect.



#NeilNeilsuperNeil

 

Everyone seems to play with their back to goal, which slows everything down. Apart from Rogic when he gets on the turn. And with this diamond midfield formation, we really need more attacking rampant full backs. Taylor, although he played well tonight, doesn't offer that.
Also both Ajeti and Edouard want it into feet with nobody making them runs off the last man. I would give Klimala a start with either Ajeti or Edouard and see if they could strike up more of a partnership.

 

Thing is mate, we did. Look at last season compared to under Rodgers the year before.

This is just league stats - in 30 games we scored 89, Rodgers 2nd season we scored - 73

This season though? Who the * knows what style we’re striving for. 28 games, 68 goals.

 

yeah under him the first time we relied on players doing something special rather than team work

i remember sammy commons forrest doing special things that got us out of holes

brendan made us use the width to stretch teams creating space for our attackers to score

 

Watching us a lot of the time, you wonder what is our style what are we trying to achieve with our set-up and combinations of players.

We have chopped and changed in terms of formation and personnel so much this season, granted through necessity at times. Like going away somewhere and having to isolate a starting 11 for 2 games and the likes.

We also seem to fall back into bad habits from game to game and don't make the adjustments until either halftime or when it's too late. One example defending set-pieces. In particular free kicks. At times, Motherwell away in particular we defended their indirect free kicks far too deep. The starting position was 5 yards outside the box and then we dropped on the kick, taking the attacking line into our own area( Gallagher goal came in that very manner). Playing right into the majority of team's hands in the process.

Another one from the game last night. At Killie last midweek, we had one from Brown or McGregor drop into the back line to surpass Killies front line of defence. Brown usually held the centre position and flanked by Ajer and Welsh in the 3. McGregor would drop left side with Ajer and Welsh moving over one spot. This allowed Kenny and Taylor to get higher up and provide width. And we flood the middle with Turnbull, Rogic and one from Brown or McGregor. Add in Eddie and Ajeti, you had 5 occupying and holding the Killie defence and midfield narrow. With space wide for runs and passes for the fullbacks.

A whole lot easier to explain or show, if I knew how to upload pictures.

(Motherwell adjusted to that by defending the area and leaving the wide areas for us to play in on Saturday.)

St Mirren dropped off into a middish/low block. We had Ajer, Welsh, Brown and McGregor all playing in front of their highest line of players. As a result, we were at a numerical disadvantage higher up the field and struggled to progress the play into the attacking third. Probably why we went backwards with most of our play. Aside from Ajer, who eventually got fed up with the dicking aboot with the ball. Decided to be proactive and was continually stepping forward with the ball and on many occasions getting higher up the field.

Then after halftime, we saw more of a set-up from the Killie game. More often than not it was Brown dropping in. Taylor was higher up the park and making passes and runs into areas which would trouble St Mirren, the penalty came from one. Kenny was able to get forward and had players in front to combine with, in comparison to the 1st half. Where he was far too deep and couldn't provide the width. He had no-one close enough and was forcing passes through the middle (or turning back to Ajer or Welsh) Rogic and Turnbull(and Christie when he came on) were able to pick up areas near the St Mirren box, rather than 20 yards further back. Places where they could affect the game and cause St Mirren problems.

My issue is the lack of adjustments and not being proactive enough in recognition and changing the game for our benefit. Management and Players. Although Ajer spotted a solution right enough.

Why are we waiting so long for the adjustments? Especially when they aren't particularly complicated ones. And we are wasting time and opportunities to win the games.

We see it a lot with subs. Unless its an injury. We tend to see them wait until 60 mins in for them to be made. Despite the performance not being good enough, individual or otherwise.

 

That’s always how I’ve described WGS’s teams, never got that under Lenny the first time round for me.

Loved the interplay between his teams, from his first one with Broony at right mid that would go 433 going forward, with Hooper going deep, Stokes peeling out to the left and whoever was on the left going forward in the middle unmarked, whether it was Sammy, Commons, Forrest, Maloney or Paddy.

To his last season changing to the diamond to make space for Commons to score 32 goals from midfield. It was all about teamwork, covering for the guy next to you and making the most of players attributes. He had guys in that could be average but had something that could be much better, like Wanyama’s strength, Ledley’s positional play, Mulgrew’s delivery.

He’s not done that at all this time round, but that team wasn’t full of guys that could do a bit of magic like Lubo or Naka or even McGeady, it was team players getting the best out of others.

 

Remembering that makes me wonder what happened to Lennon. He surely could do better than he's managing us now. To be noted is the improvement and the wee run of form when we switched to the diamond last year. It's just that Lennon desperately wants guys like Duffy and Brown to play, particularly the latter. So slow to notice he must drop them.