Celtic master plan around Neil Lennon's football brain

Neil Lennon is working hard to establish Parkhead’s own version of the CIA – Celtic Intelligence Agency.

The Hoops boss has a vision of the kind of players he wants to bring together, and the type of football he wants them to deliver.

At the core of it all is intelligence, and Lennon believes the signs are emerging that it is beginning to come together.

Watching men such as Emilio Izaguirre and Beram Kayal linking up to take control of games like Saturday’s 3-0 win at Easter Road leaves Lennon feeling a warm glow.

Realising that, once up to speed fitness-wise, Freddie Ljungberg will soon be able to add his clever qualities to the mix, and that another very smart player, Shaun Maloney, has still to return, it’s little wonder Lennon is confident his masterplan for developing a successful brand of football is taking shape.

Amidst the hurly-burly of football in this country, he wants his players to be able to use their footballing brains to rise above the frenetic.

Against Hibs, that was one of the features that stood out, as clever use of the ball and quick-thinking provided the platform for Celtic to win with goals from Gary Hooper and a double from Anthony Stokes.

“We want them to play football,” said Lennon as he attempted to describe his philosophy in layman’s terms. “Gordon Strachan always went on about them being brave in the tackle and brave on the ball, and I want my midfield players to be brave. When it’s the hurly-burly type of game, can you get it down and play?

“You saw on Saturday that Beram manipulates the ball well, and he had an end pro-duct for a lot of the stuff he was doing.”

Kayal’s incisive passing set up Hooper for a one-on-one with keeper mark Brown just before the Israeli sent Stokes clear to deliver the pass for his strike partner to outwit his marker and shoot home the opener.

Lennon was the first to applaud and added: “Second half, Beram could have put Paddy McCourt in a couple of times and was just unlucky with the final ball.

“But he got us into the game when we were struggling for the first 20 or 25 minutes. There was no real fluency to our play. We were a little bit groggy up front, which we expected. But I thought Kayal grew into the game and dragged the rest of them with him.”

The return to action – and full fitness – of the Israeli international after more than three months out has been welcomed by Lennon, who knew exactly what he could bring to the side when he spotted him playing for Maccabi Haifa last season.

It was this knowledge which also alerted Lennon to the fact something was seriously wrong with the 22-year-old when his form started to dip shortly after he made his initial impact in the Hoops.

Yet it is only since he came back into the side at Ibrox at the start of this month that the extent to which Kayal had been encumbered by a long-standing groin problem, which required surgery, has become clear.

“No doubt about it,” said Lennon, who has already admitted he sees a lot of himself in the midfield star. He started fantastically with his training performances and his performances in games at the beginning of the season.

“Slowly but surely he deter- iorated to a point where we said, ‘We need to get this kid looked at because he is not where he was a week or two ago’. Hopefully, Beram is now pain-free and you can see what a very good player he can be.”

Kayal is so important to Lennon he was substituted as soon as the game was made safe against Hibs, the manager mindful of the fact he was already on a booking.

The manager understands how important it is going to be to have as many key players available as they approach a vital stage of the season.

So he has his fingers crossed that James Forrest today wins his appeal against the red card he received against Hamilton last midweek.

Since returning to the side after 15 weeks out with inflammation of an ankle, the teenage winger has struggled to recapture the form he had shown in the earlier part of the campaign.

He did play his part in the 2-0 win at Ibrox on January 2, but struggled to build on that in the games at Berwick and Hamilton. Lennon is doing all in his power to help the youngster through this period, and that includes one-to-one chats to reassure Forrest that this blip will soon be behind him.

When asked about his form fluctuation, Lennon said: “Listen, you expect that. He is a 19-year-old kid in his first full season. You have to persevere with him sometimes, and we had a little chat with him.

“Against Hibs, he just got better and better the longer the game went on. I was delighted with him. James is a confident kid, but he is not over-confident.

“He is not gallus. He knew himself he was not doing well enough, but we felt we would get a reaction from him on Saturday – and we did.”

I really liked this article and thought Id share it.

 

Yep its just whether or not the fans will give lennon time because some of us are twats to be honest

 

Brilliant insight to what Lennon is trying to achieve.
I really like what he's doing with the club. After Mowbray (some may also argue Strachan, too) the team are exciting to watch again.
I'm happy with Neil Lennon so far and I hope the board give him their full backing.

 

Lennon goes for more win the right to play before you do.

Under Mowbray it was just go play which doesn't work.

Strachan just went for don't play and get stuck in

 

The best thing about that article were the quotes from Lenny realizing how important Kayal is, I was afraid that with every managers obsession with Broon and our over crowded midfield that Kayal would find himself on the bench. And that can NOT be the case by any means.

 

If he's after intelligence from his players why hasn't he punted Brown by now?

 

Admirable goals, but unfortunately sounds rather a lot like the stuff Mowbray was saying when he arrived. Would be fantastic if we could play this was on a regular basis though, we have already seen glimpses of it this season.

 

I would happily give lennon until after the summer transfer window to see if all comes together but in saying that i will be extremely disappointed if we dont win the league
but in Lenny We Trust
HAIL HAIL

 

I'm not certain Neil Lennon has a brilliant footballing brain, but I think he has surrounded himself with some very good advisers in Thommo and Johan and between the three of them they definitely know how a club should be run and how a team should be performing on the pitch. It is well known that MON refused to part company with John Robertson and Steve Watford because it is the three of them as a management team who are good together, I hope the same will be true of the current Celtic management.

 

Seems like it Mick ,A bit of teamwork going on there ,it cant be a bad thing either if it works and you can finally see improvement in this team.

Tell Paul [Henke] I was asking for him Mick.

 

kayal and ki would be good together

 

Good article

 

Good read that.

In Lennon we trust

 

aye, I think they'd make a really cute couple.