TIME TO TALK A GOOD GAME
Lennon hopes one to one chats with players will unearth reasons for Celtic’s alarming slump
LIKE iron filings drawn to a magnet, Celtic seem to have an irresistible attraction for trouble these days. No matter the opponent, the venue or the situation, it’s as if they are almost willingly seeking it out.
Acts of self-harm are now purely matters of routine. The backdrop and the cast list changes. But the script remains the same.
Against Hibernian, it was Scott Brown needlessly flooring an opponent to concede a penalty. Against Ross County, it was Christopher Jullien’s turn. As for the eight goals conceded against Sparta Prague? Take your pick.
On Thursday in northern Italy, it was Ryan Christie’s moment to give away a needless free-kick. One flick of Hakan Calhanoglu’s boot was all that was required for AC Milan to start a comeback that felt as predictable as day following night.
By the end of another long night for the Parkhead men, Vasilis Barkas and Hatem Abd Elhamed had joined the growing list of transgressors this term but pinning the blame for the side’s alarming decline on two or three individuals is to miss the point.
You don’t win two games from 11 because a few players are off the boil. Celtic’s yet-to-be completed story in the Europa League is of one point taken from a possible 15 and 17 goals conceded in the process. It’s been an unmitigated, collective disaster.
The continental campaign has been punctuated by domestic reverses to Rangers and Ross County with costly draws against Aberdeen and Hibernian.
At one time or another, it feels like all of Neil Lennon’s players have been culpable.
Privately, the Celtic manager must feel like he’s playing f ootball’s equivalent of whack-a-mole.
In the San Siro, Odsonne Edouard and Tom Rogic both scored and l ooked s o mething like their old selves. With Jeremie Frimpong also reinvigorated, Celtic were markedly better offensively than in the no- show that ended their grip on the Betfred Cup last Sunday.
But when t he number of i ndividual mistakes are so f requent and predictable, all progress is relative; there’s little point in the outboard motor firing into life if there are so many holes in the vessel.
Perplexed and frustrated at how the season is unfolding, to date Lennon has vowed to hunt the disaffected and change t he culture. He’s wielded the stick and dangled the carrot. And still it goes on.
This week saw a new approach — one he can only hope provides a spark if not the answers to all the questions surrounding an alarming loss of form.
‘I’ve had a chat with a few of them and they are all in it,’ he revealed. ‘ We speak to them individually as well as a group.
‘ I’ve done it with many of them. Senior players, younger players. The response has been good. There have been long chats with a few of them over the past f ew days just to see where we are as a group.
‘I thought they did a lot of good things in Milan and that pleased me.’
The rate of decline has still been sufficiently alarming to justify a post-mortem from supporters while the patient is still i n the operating theatre.
In the cases of Shane Duffy and Barkas, t he c onsensus is simply that
The response has been good. They did a lot of good things in Milan
extraordinary sums of money have been lavished on defective goods. The negligible impacts thus far of January signings Patryk Klimala and Ismaila Soro are classed — perhaps prematurely — among a lengthy list of inadequates. But what of those who have simply gone off the boil after such prolonged periods of excellence? The manager has made it his business to light a flame under them again. ‘ We are having a bad run and it’s probably the first one we have had in five, six or ten years,’ said Lennon.
‘Kris Ajer is still a young man. Ryan Christie is the same, so is Odsonne. I had a long chat with Jeremie on Thursday afternoon before the game. I had a good half an hour sat with him. He was outstanding in the San Siro.
‘I don’t know if it had anything to do with the chat we had, but he went out there and played bravely.
‘I don’t just want to speak to them about football. I want to get to know what’s going on with them.
‘I want to know how they are getting on in Glasgow with the restrictions, how they are coping with it all. They are human beings.
‘Jeremie was pretty positive and he’s gone out and it manifested itself in his performance in Milan.
‘They are really good boys and they are working very hard.’
Perhaps the root of the matter lies not in the mind of any one player but in the club as a whole.
Viewed as almost a birthright by supporters since Lennon started the current run of titles in his first spell in charge, the pressure of delivering ten in a row seems to be weighing heavily on the players.
‘More than ever, the players have to motivate themselves,’ said the manager. ‘And we do our best as a backroom team to motivate them as best we can.
‘There has been a lot of soul searching from them in the last few days and I got the response I was looking for in Milan.’
You can’t blame Lennon (left) for trying to accentuate the positives in a performance that at least contained some. But the kind of
gutless defending exhibited by his side as the Serie A leaders put the game beyond them must have been galling.
‘I think we lacked a little bit of physicality in certain moments, that’s all,’ he said.
‘I was disappointed with the third and fourth goals. We had enough bodies to be dealing with it and we should be dealing with it.
‘We need to tackle better and we need to do the dirty bits of the game better.
‘They showed on Thursday night what a good team they can be. We took the game to Milan in the San Siro. I think it may have inspired them a bit to be going out and playing there.
‘So, hopefully, going back to Celtic Park is going to inspire them even more now.
‘We know what’s at stake and we know what we have to do.’
When Celtic won at McDiarmid Park back in early October, the two late goals they scored that day were taken to be indicative of their character. With hindsight, they were only papering over the cracks.
As Lennon’s side have slipped and stumbled throughout the early winter months, St Johnstone — undefeated since — have shown a firm footing.
The Perth side are presently as far removed from a soft landing as you could possible imagine.
‘St Johnstone have been on a decent run,’ said Lennon.
‘Callum (Davidson) has gone in off the back of Tommy (Wright) being there so long, but he knows the club inside out and he knows the players inside out.
‘They are always stodgy opposition to play against and they may feel we are a little bit vulnerable.
‘But it doesn’t matter who we are playing. We have to try and end this run of draws and defeats as quickly as possible.’