After losing to St Mirren on Saturday Neil Lennon claimed that the Celtic players had let him down.
It was a staggering confession for a manager to make, he might feel it but admitting it during an interview with Radio Scotland (30 minutes) crosses a certain line.
Against St Mirren, Lennon fielded an unchanged team from the one that beaten Hamilton three days earlier but his post match comments won’t have gone down well in the dressing room.
In normal circumstances wholesale changes would be expected but 48 hours after his outburst Lennon is hoping to sweet talk the same group of players into turning it on against Kilmarnock tomorrow night. He told today’s media conference that ‘I have a lot of faith in them’.
STV report the Celtic boss saying:
You’ve got to have your professional pride so I am hoping for a reaction tomorrow evening. To lose games is bitterly disappointing, and off the back of a really good performance last Wednesday (against Hamilton) we failed to show consistency of performance again.
They have it in them, there is plenty of evidence of that, they just need to find a rhythm of playing well and winning games. You express disappointment at the level of performance and players have to look at themselves and say, ‘can I play better, can I get myself in better condition, can I do more for the team, can I do more for the club, can I do more for the manager?’ And the answer is yes.
Regardless of whether they respond to me or not, they have their own personal responsibility and pride in their performances as individuals and as a collective. The bottom line is the players can play better. I have a lot of faith in them.
I was really disappointed in them at the weekend, there is no point in hiding away from that. It is simply not up to the standards we ask of them or we believe they can produce. So the result and performance was really disappointing and I don’t think the players would disagree with that either.
After losing to St Johnstone at home on Saturday Kilmarnock and Alex Dyer parted company by mutual consent after 14 months in charge, the bulk of that during Lockdown.
In the second game of the season Celtic drew 1-1 away to Kilmarnock, in the aftermath of that match it emerged that substitute Boli Bolingoli had enjoyed a Spanish day trip in the build up to the match.