Celtic FC manager Neil Lennon claims that he did not run out the same team on Sunday against Motherwell as he did midweek to prove a point.
Celtic defeated Motherwell 3-0 on Sunday to add an additional three points to their tally. The victory may have been overshadowed by the news stemming from the news that created last Wednesday after Ferencvaros defeated the Hoops in the Champions League qualifying rounds.
Manager Neil Lennon fielded a squad that had Ryan Christie playing up front as a striker while two natural strikers sat on the bench due to being ‘unfit’ which led to some strife. Hoops supporters saw this as a repeat of mistakes made last season when Lennon played Callum McGregor at leftback in a qualifying match and was eliminated.
So, it was only natural that supporters were dumbfounded when Lennon ran the exact same squad out the following match on Sunday against Motherwell. Before the match fans were calling out Lennon for being arrogant and trying to prove a point that the squad would work, even if it was against a much weaker side.
Despite winning 3-0, fans were not convinced of the move. It was only in the second half when two natural strikers came into the match and moved to a 3-5-2 formation did Celtic begin to start looking like champions. Lennon however denies he ran the same team out to make a point. Here is what he said in his press conference:
"“You’ve just got to go with your gut instinct to go with the same team.“I thought that, in isolation, we dominated Ferencvaros and should have won – we didn’t.“And then it’s all down to the fact we didn’t play a centre forward, but none of them are fit enough to start and you can see that today.“The likes of Edouard and Griffiths aren’t here either, they are injured, Rogic is injured, Johnston is injured.“It was the best team we felt could have picked and today to start the game we felt it was the right way to go.“I make decisions and you live and die off them for what you think is for the benefit of the club.“It’s not some sort of ego trip.“I have always put the players first and the club first. I expected criticism after the game and the volume of criticism is sometimes out of sync and balance.”"
Despite his comments, it was blatantly clear that the squad performed much better with a natural striker up front and especially with two up front with the 3-5-2 formation. Who would’ve thought?