Neil Lennon has told his players that they have nothing to prove.
Ever since Celtic lost to Ross County in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup in the middle of an eight match winning run in the SPL the critics have enjoyed dredging up the big match theory.
A 20 match winning run in the SPL that turned a 15 point deficit into a one point advantage in the space of two months should have killed the theory stone dead but last week’s League Cup defeat from Kilmarnock saw the old criticism revived.
While other managers enjoy extended honeymoons Lennon’s record is still picked over despite bringing a squad together on a relative shoestring budget mainly funded by the sale of Aiden McGeady to Spartak Moscow.
Seven of the Celtic side that lost to Kilmarnock didn’t cost the club a penny but despite the lack of spending Lennon believes that his side is rich in character and the big match mentality.
“It’s complete nonsense to suggest that the team can’t handle big matches,” the hoops boss told Celtic tv. “Every week is a big game for these players and they’ve handled the pressure brilliantly.
“They’ve played the best football in Scotland, they’ve rampaged through the league for the last four or five months.
“Runs come to an end. We lost a match on Sunday, the first time in 27 games, there was a lot of bottle on that run when we were up against Rangers, Hearts, Dundee United and came through it with flying colours.
“The players came up short on Sunday but I’m not going to be over critical of the team for that, that’s football, sometimes it happens in a one off game. We’ll come again.
“No one should forget the run that they were on before the Kilmarnock match. I’ve taken a step back to look at that match from a less passionate and emotional view. I watched the game again and can’t criticise the players for the way that they tried to play.
“We created plenty of chances, the only criticism is that we didn’t score a goal. Their goalkeeper got man-of-the-match which says a lot about our performance, that’s not my players bottling it, it’s just the luck on the day.
“We’ve got a lot to play for, there will be a determination to see the league through and go and win the Scottish Cup.”
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We should learn from our mistakes, clearly we made a few more v Kilmarnock last week but not as many as we did v Rangers earlier in the season.
Hopefully these lessons are sinking in, win the battle then win the game. Teams are being allowed to out number us in midfield meaning our strikers are not getting a quality service. Players out of position, off form etc.
Great to have pulled back 15 point deficit, but WHY did we find ourselves in such a position in the first place ? We have better player for player squads than anyone in the league by some distance…keep it simple and do our talking where it matters.
Today’s game against rangers will be played (to start) at a ferocious pace. They can’t match us for football, so they will try to work harder, shut down space and foul their way victory.
That is why we must match up in mid-field for at least an hour. The pace will drop as legs tire. Then football will prevail.
Win the battle, win the league!
Its a young team and every week’s a learnin curve. I agree with Lenny and I think the team has done well and had bottle to put themselves into finals and top of the league. Killie proves that there is still danger from outside Glasgow in domestic competitions and if we can tally more than the 93 pts we got last year then we’ve won the league on “merit” and the bhoys and NL should be very proud of themselves. I for 1 am over the moon with the way things are going HH 1NL TAL
all hoop`s stay safe 1st and foremost.for the players and manager make history and millions happy.C`MON YOU BHOYS IN GREE.N
Clearly the mistakes are NOT sinking in properly. We are again making basic errors in our line-up…Rangers were aways going to pack the midfield and use deep runners against our 2 slowest players..centre backs.
Thankfully we have enough opportunities to right the wrongs. Very poor discipline shown though which should have been stressed beforehand.
2 late goals have helped cover the errors but when we reflect on things I hope we can take much more from this setback.