Neil Lennon has made an admission about Celtic’s tactics against AC Milan in their 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Italian giants in the Europa League.
It looks like Neil Lennon is walking the managerial tightrope at Celtic right now. After the Hoops’ Glasgow Derby defeat last weekend in what was a dire performance, they needed to make a turnaround against AC Milan in the Europa League.
And to be fair to the Bhoys, the performance on the night was much better. In fact, a similar performance on Saturday might have been good enough to get a result. Of course, with Edouard missing, scoring is looking like a problem at the minute. But there were positives to take from the game.
Much of that can be put down to Lennon’s decision to ditch the 3-5-2 mid-game in order to switch to a more conventional four at the back. And following the game, the manager explained his tactics. As reported by Glasgow Live, he said:
"“We couldn’t start with a back four, we couldn’t start Ryan based on what my medical team are telling me. We had no wingers at the weekend except Elyounoussi. All this talk about back threes, back fours, we went with what was best. We started the season with 4-3-3 but we weren’t right in some of the games.“We scored more goals with 3-5-2 but its the personnel, getting players back hungrier and fitter. It was a big plus for Rogic getting half an hour, Christie, Ajeti and Laxalt, who was brilliant in his second game.”"
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Switch to 3-5-2 had done wonders last season. The team went on an incredible run after that which virtually secured them 9IAR. The results have not been quite as good this time around though.
A lot of that can be put down to the unavailability of players though. Edouard has not quite been at his best this season and was then put out of action due to testing positive. Jullien has been out with injury for a long time. Forrest is also set for a long spell on the sidelines. Nir Bitton also ended up testing positive after some impressive performances at the back.
Whatever may be the case, things are not working out as well as we would like them to at the moment and it is quite clear that we need to make some changes. May be returning to a back four with so many players out is the right way to go forward.