Scott Brown has become the second player in a matter of days to offer mild criticism of the way that Celtic played under Brendan Rodgers.
Seven out of seven domestic trophies, an invincible treble and back-to-back trebles will forever be testament to the success of the Leicester City manager but there’s little doubt that for long spells last season his side was difficult on the eye.
Four away day defeats at Rugby Park, Tynecastle, Easter Road and Ibrox before January last season were hard to fathom while the team enjoyed a 100% home record in the SPFL and finished ahead of RB Leipzig and Rosenborg in the Europa League.
Last season it took until the end of September when Scott Sinclair scored against Aberdeen with a back-heeler for the hoops to reach their seventh SPFL goal, a ‘landmark’ that they matched on Saturday with Leigh Griffiths’ goal against St Johnstone.
Brown has been the heart-beat of successive Celtic sides and is delighted by the attacking emphasis that Lennon has brought to the hoops.
“The gaffer likes us getting the ball into the penalty area nice and early and, to be fair, there’s no-one better in the business to have there than Leigh and Odsonne,” Brown told the Evening Times.
“Everyone used to know that we’d play with two wide men, a lone striker and either one or two No.10s but we’ve tried to chop and change so that we’re not one-dimensional all the time – not that I think we were before.
“A lot of other teams would try the low block against us and try to counter-attack us but we had enough in defence to deal with most of them. That wasn’t the problem, though; the goals had just dried up, although we still managed to win the title and the Scottish Cup.
“Odsonne is still only 21 but he’s been brilliant for us and he’s also good in the dressing room. On the pitch he works at closing people down, his hold-up play is important and he’s a natural finisher as well.
“With Leigh available again and Ryan Christie making those runs in behind and creating space for others, that’s also helped him.”
Brown will be hoping that Celtic’s scoring form continues in Romania tomorrow when they take on Cluj in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.
