Celtic’s next permanent manager

They usually stay clear of Celtic chat

 

Isn't that to be expected considering we lost our best manager statistically in over 50 years, at the business end of the season, who also took the backroom staff out?

 

Aye, but it’s just a worry how big the drop is considering there’s still plenty staff there and all the players. The players themselves should be able to see the season out playing the football they’ve been playing all season. Somethings changed. Not for the better.

 

In fairness it is mental that McDonalds have reduced the saturated fat in their Burgers by 83%

 

Jesus.

tl;dr

Our form has dipped since Lenny took over. You can dress it up however you want, but it changes nothing.

 

We haven’t got worse though. Lennon is in charge so we must not have got worse. It’s impossible.

 

This is where I think the division between the support appears to exist.

His primary objectives when taking over were to win both the League and the Scottish Cup, both of which we're on course to do. Granted we're not doing it in the swashbuckling style that everyone would like but the performances were secondary to the results for me.

He had 2 choices when he came in:

Continue with a style that wasn't his but that was familiar to the squad and had given us a run of successive wins?

Or change it all up to fit his own style with no benefit of signing players to suit it and run the risk of that backfiring in terms of results and/or performances with unprecedented history of the football club at stake, both the Treble Treble and 10 in a row?

He's obviously went with the former, possibly to the detriment of his prospects of getting the job long-term. Time will tell on that one. The debate is going round in circles but I think some of the criticism is way over the top.

I don't understand how you're willing to overlook plenty of dog * performances from Sinclair when he's delivered results (goals and assists) but aren't affording Lennon the same.

 

The thing is, though, he hasn't. It's clear he hasn't. Despite Lenny saying he has.

He's not completely ripped it up but there's definitely a difference in how we play. The number of crosses we put in now is double what we did under Rodgers this season. Yet we still have as little success from them as we did under Rodgers - therefore we're putting in a lot more crosses but still getting the same outcome (*). It doesn't suit our players, so I don't know why he's persisting with it.

 

Great news.

 

There's been minor tweaks but we're still playing the same formation; one that isn't Lennon's normal go to with 2 up top.

If I was in Lennon's shoes then I would've been inclined to put more of my own stamp on things, particularly when we've struggled to break down teams. That said the only 2nd striker he could play right now is Burke and plenty were screaming for him to be benched after poor performances against Dundee and Livingston.

 

Since Lennon took over (8 games) we have averaged 27.5 crosses per game

In Rodgers last 8 games we averaged 15 crosses per game

 

Tbf, I wouldn't class the huge increase in crosses as a minor tweak. He's essentially swapping trying to play through defences with passes, with hopeful crosses to (usually) one player in the box.

Weah can play up top as well. He's played a total of 130 minutes in the 8 league matches, which is pretty ridiculous if we're honest.

 

Bad idea coming on here after drinking........its confusing

 

Yep.

The Aberdeen cup game is the only game where we’ve been able to relax for a sustained period.

As you say if we’d had a few convincing wins even against the likes of St Mirren, Livingston or Dundee then no doubt a lot more people would want Lennon to get the job permanently.

 

I disagree. I'd say it was a tweak, we're still playing the 4-2-3-1 with the 2 deep lying centre mids. A run through any Lennon team in the last 7/8 years will show you that it's generally not the way he plays.

The fact we're putting in more crosses when up against stubborn, defensive opposition is a positive in my opinion. It shows that Lennon is at least looking to change things when they're not working.

 

Again, it was working fine before he took over. Our drop in goals scored has coincided with the increase in crosses.

Look, I can't really begrudge him trying to put his stamp on the team, as much as I think it clearly isn't working. He's the manager after all. However he keeps saying, and people on here are saying the same, that he hasn't really changed anything. But he evidently has.