One of the biggest stories regarding Celtic’s recent 2-1 Glasgow derby victory over Rangers was the decision made by Neil Lennon to start Jonny Hayes in the game.
Hayes, who has been in and out of the team this season, got the nod to start over the likes of Oliver Burke and Scott Sinclair.
Now Lennon has revealed the reason why he selected Hayes – it was to help Kieran Tierney.
“Lighten the load”
“It was to lighten the load on Kieran a little bit” Lennon said, as reported by the Herald.
“Jonny gave us a bit of natural width on the left-hand, whereas with Scotty Sinclair or Timothy Weah, they would go on the inside and Kieran would have to make those long-bursting runs up and down the pitch.”
Good idea in theory
The idea was a sound one in theory. Tierney has been struggling with injuries recently. However, if didn’t really work out in the end.
Hayes was replaced at half-time by Scott Sinclair. Tierney had to go off injured in the second-half.
Was Lennon being slightly cautious in his team selection? Quite possibly. But it does say a lot about Tierney’s importance to the side that Lennon was willing to reduce his workload.
It remains to be seen if either player will feature for the Hoops against St Mirren on Wednesday night.
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