Neil Lennon has taken full responsibility for Celtic’s 2-0 defeat from Kilmarnock.
Five days on from the praise of their boss in Barcelona the Celtic squad experienced the other side of the Irishman.
While taking responsibility for the performance Lennon has enough options to ring the changes with the return clash with Barcelona ten days away.
“It was my fault, I picked the team,” the Celtic boss stated. “I am not blaming the players for that. I thought we had a strong team, it looked good on paper but there was no fluidity.
“There was a malaise about the team that I did not like at all. It was too passive, there was no intensity to our play and we got what we deserved without Kilmarnock having to do that much.
“The first goal was a shambles and the second goal was just poor defending. It is a dose of reality, we came down to earth with a bump.”
Lennon added: “We gave two goals away without Kilmarnock really having to work for it.
We had good players out of the pitch, but there was no urgency or tempo to our game. We made life very comfortable for Kilmarnock.
“It’s like we were out for a testimonial in the first half. We weren’t turning them or stretching them.
“I don’t recall a real 50-50 in the game when there was a real desperation for us to get the ball back or move with any real intent.”
Celtic face St Johnstone for a semi-final place in the League Cup on Tuesday with Lennon set to make more changes.
He added: “We have been to two finals and I would like to go again. We will need a better performance than we turned in at McDiarmid Park. We want to progress so I will put out a strong team.
“Saints are playing with great spirit, great team ethic and a lot of confidence. They are dangerous with Gregory Tade and Nigel Hasselbaink doing very well, backed up by Rowan Vine.
“Steve Lomas is a strong character who knows what he wants to do in the game. It is great exposure for him.”
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Ok Lenny, I blame you. Only kidding.
I think after Tuesday we took our eye off the ball. We had a good performance against Barcalona, but we’re not world beaters yet by a long way. There’s no need to panic, but we need 100% effort and 100% concentration for every game we play. Sort it out ghuys.
Doh! Barcelona. It’s Sunday morning.
That was the most disappointing aspect, fans could see after 15-20 mins what was wrong. Yet we did nothing until half-time. We were screaming out for some urgency, higher tempo yet brought on McCourt who simply slowed things down even further.
Wilson & Ambrose were the hardest working players in midweek yet Ambrose was asked to move to midfield..another hard shift – why was he not rested ?
Changing the shape of the side to suit Kilmarnock, stupidity….let them worry about us.
Bad mistakes, basic errors in team selection, bringing Watt on way too late….no question who is to blame. Similar mistakes in Europe will be heavily punished.
Knowing what’s wrong & learning from it are two different things.
After European games we should give the starting 11 a complete rest. The other players who don’t rack up enough playing time should be good enough to get a in in the SPL.
Bin
100% correct.We could have changed the entire team. I would have only changed 7 or 8 of them. Give the young guys a chance and rest the others. We will never have a better opportunity to build the youngsters up than now.
It baffles me why we need 4 defenders against 1 attacker.In my humble opinion we should play 3 at the back 5 across the middle and 2 up top.
We allowed Killie all the time in the world,we never pressed them at all.