Neil Lennon

We can also see the shape of our team in and out of possession, the marking at set pieces, the spaces and positions players occupy during a game.

Those all come from the manager and coaching team.

Some football journalists/bloggers literally make a living by writing about the tactical ideas of different managers and systems etc. Again, anyone with half a brain can watch football matches and make observations and judgements based on what we’re watching.

 

* me lad, that would be a long list!

Right, let's take the last hun's game for example, and make it simple:

Regardless of what players Lennon had at his disposal, he chose to operate with a 3-5-2.

Huns strengths are without doubt in the wide areas.

Right away Lennon * it by having one Celt against two huns on either side of the pitch.

Remained with one man isolated up front against a very together defence.

Tried to pack the midfield to counter hun dominance through their 3-man midfield, they totally bypassed our players.

Look at every single one of our midfielders (actually every one of our players almost to a man) - when the opposition players have the ball our players go toward said opposition player. Do they put a tackle in? No, or at least very rarely - what they do is they try and harrie them (jockey) which is the equivalent of trying to waft away the smell of a fart with a tennis racket.

Don't even get me started on the shape and organisation of the defence, and the ridiculous attempts at continuous zonal marking...

 

Lennon’s a diddy. Get over it.

* *.

 

Where’s your evidence to back it up?

 

TBF There's a lot of fair points there; but they're all from this season. I know he's having a mare.

 

Stats don’t tell the full story with what he offers.


Or whatever the pish was he said about Browny x

 

For what it's worth ..and I've been here before with some members..BUT

I've yet to see Lenny outplay Gerrard and win convincingly....even his 2-0 Ibrox win was a pretty even game from my point of view.

 

There was a study published in Nature recently: nature.com/lennonisadiddy

 

Ok then, last season.

Completely obliterated in the cup final by the huns. Without debate. Honestly still to this day I cannot believe we managed to * that win.

Lennon carries on with the same flat team shape and selection the following game at Celtic Park. Loses 1-2. Outplayed and outfought at almost every single aspect.

Finishes the year in 2nd place.

To his credit though, switches to 3-5-2 (or 3-5-1-1) and steamrolls the opposition for the remainder of the year.

Then, this season, reverts back to 4-2-3-1...

 

It is like arguing with a conspiracy theorist. You cannot win.

 

He also started Callum McGregor at left back last season against Cluj, to get his “best technicians” on the pitch. The game where we shipped 4 goals at home.

Nothing to do with the tactics, though...

 

The cup final, Eddy was missing for most of it and we looked immediately better when he came on (even though he wasn't fit). We had to play with Morgan (who isn't even good enough as a winger) up front.

Sure, we didn't lead at New Year. That happens sometimes when you have real rivals, but as you say we put together a to * of a run afterwards to pull away. Some of my favourite titles involved comebacks (e.g. that one under WGS).

Then, when assessing if he is tactically incompetent, you can't just pull up his mistakes (and of course he has made some); you also have to look at the good things he did. While a lot of it was the players and there was a degree of luck involved and I don't for a second think it was down to Lenny being a great tactician, you simply can't qualify from your CL group or win your EL group if you are tactically incompetent. It's not possible to be that lucky, because you don't have superior players to rescue you like you domestically.

Yes, he also had seasons were he made bad mistakes in Europe too. It's a bit of a mixed bag. I'm only arguing here that he's not incompetent.

 

Rodgers made the same mistake against the Huns. Rodgers is an excellent tactician and he literally made that same mistake. It's clearly an easier mistake to make than we imagine.

 

I have been arguing in good faith here. In what specific ways are my arguments like those of a conspiracy theorist?

 

Rodgers played McGregor there because Tierney was in the middle of a 3 month absence due to injury. Aye it wasn’t the smartest decision but it was more understandable.

Lennon had just spent £3m on Bolingoli and had him on the bench that night. Yet he decided to play our best midfielder out of position and keep the left back sitting on his * all night.

 

It’s been said by ex players that Lennon doesn’t really do any focus on tactics. That’s a fact, straight from multiple ex players. There’s literally no argument.

Gerrard is the same, players say it’s Michael Beale that is the man behind it.

Lennon and Gerrard will have ideas. But they aren’t the brains behind any sort of tactical system.

 

That's where Kennedy or Strachan are supposed to shine.....unless Lennon is completely shunning their idea's and method's..

It's probably more likely that Kennedy and Strachan are also completely out of their depth..

 

Or there is the possibility of this:

Lennon said last season John Kennedy was being kept on and the he would lean on him as he would more or less be carrying on with the way Rodgers et al were working.

Then this season, a season that has been an utter abortion so far, could be the season were Lennon started going off that track.

IF that is the case, then the problem clearly isn't with Kennedy...

 

It was a mistake alright, but my point is that the idea of playing McGregor there is clearly not as crazy as it now seems in hindsight. I blamed Lenny for that match on the night and since (my posting history is there to be checked). That's one night I have never defended him over. It was a massive screw up.

 

I didn't know that about Beale. Any chance we can poach him?