Neil Lennon has considerable credit in the bank, winning two trophies after picking up the slack from Brendan Rodgers, whilst also securing two trophies in 2019/20 with a third potentially still to come.
This doesn’t allow him to continue to make the same mistakes repeatedly against Rangers, and Saturday’s defeat was an alarming realisation that we have become too dependant on individual brilliance rather than tactical efficiency to win games.
The Champions League exit to Cluj last year, followed by the league cup final – which we were lucky to win, make no mistake – and the Parkhead derby defeat, followed by the Ferencvaros disaster this season have displayed an unwanted consistency, that the gaffer either isn’t preparing his team properly or – more worryingly – doesn’t know how too.
Against the “jobbers” of the Scottish Premiership having players of superior quality will, nine times out of ten, be enough to secure maximum points, unless those in green and white are having an off day but it is when Lennon’s side have to step up against superior opposition, they are frequently getting found out.
Winning ugly is the clichéd indication of a sign of potential champions, safe in the knowledge that eventually everything will click, but some of the decisions made before the derby did little to instil confidence that an upturn in performance is just around the corner.
Replacing Greg Taylor with Diego Laxalt for one, the Scotland international knows the system and would not have been found out of position as often as the Uruguayan was, both goals came from deficiencies from Celtic’s left-hand side.
Starting Patryk Klimala and Moi Elyounoussi up front together is another, if Albian Ajeti and Leigh Griffiths are fit enough for the bench, they should be starting – five substitutes are allowed this season and this should have been factored into the game plan.
Who was to blame for derby defeat?
Players
Lennon
It is not a secret that Rangers have two main tactical plans, both of which involve the positioning of their full-backs, they either keep them high and wide when dominating possession or start deeper to draw out defenders leaving gaps behind to play direct, that Lennon waited until 2-0 down and 80 minutes to adapt to this is unacceptable.
Winning trophies is all that matters but if the gaffer fails to accept responsibility and look at his own actions rather than blaming the players every time there is failure on the pitch, they could be about to become an awful lot harder to win.