Neil Lennon has sent a warning to the Celtic players

Neil Lennon has sent a warning to his Celtic players following a toothless display in their 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Rangers.

The saddest thing about Celtic’s performance against the Rangers was the lack of desire they showed to get anything out of the game. It is one thing to lose a game and completely another to not even try to get a goal back when trailing. And all of this is magnified multiple times when you put in such a display in a Glasgow Derby.

There appeared to be no urgency in their play even when two goals down and minutes left to be played to the point where it stopped making sense. The players just seemed happy enough to pass it around at the back and punt it forward after a while in hope that somebody gets hold of it.

Unfortunately, nobody did and we put in one of the worst derby displays in a long, long time. In fact, the Rangers were not anything special themselves. They just came up against a side that was terrible.

Neil Lennon has sent a warning to his players to not live in the past and bounce back from this result. As reported by The Scottish Sun, he said:

"“It’s early in the season though and you can’t listen to all the noise outside.“Can they respond? Absolutely. They’ve done it before.“But they can’t live on the past. This is the present and we’ve got a title race on our hands and we have to roll out sleeves up and do better.“I have no idea if these derby games will be vital. If they are then we will have to make up for it over time.“We’ve got a game in hand we have to win and assess where we are from there.“You can’t base everything on four games a season, you have to be consistent all year.”"

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A lot of fans would be more than happy to point the finger at Lennon though. There is no denying the fact the manager has failed to get the best out of the players in the Glasgow Derby. This is the third straight time that they have been outplayed by the Rangers and they had Fraser Forster to thank for winning them one of those games.

Yes, Lennon can’t get on the pitch and play for them. But he needs to take his fair share of the blame here – probably even the lion’s share. Right now though the most important thing is to bounce back and hopefully they manage to do that similar to how they did last season, taking 53 points from a possible 57 after the defeat at the end of the year.

At no point of the season though, this team has looked completely comfortable. Hopefully, it is not the pressure of securing 10IAR that is getting to the players.