BBC pundit Michael Stewart has stated that he was “surprised” by Celtic manager Neil Lennon’s decision to switch James Forrest over to the left in our 2-2 draw at Livingston.
Forrest was anonymous in the first half at the Tony Macaroni Arena last night. The Hoops went into half-time with the scoreline at 1-1, and with Forrest struggling to make any impact.
In order to combat it, Lennon tried to switch Forrest out over the to the left with Jeremie Frimpong taking his place down the right. The Scotland international put a couple of teasing balls into the penalty area, but the idea was that he would be able to cut onto his stronger right foot.
And Stewart struggled to grasp why Lennon wanted that to be the case. Speaking on BBC Sportsound last night (04/03), the former Hearts midfielder claimed Celtic needed to use more width.
“Perhaps just when they reflect on it they’ll notice the amount of times they came infield and it was ineffective.
“I was surprised they didn’t recognise the need to go down those wider areas as much as possible. Getting into those one-v-ones down the wide areas – try to take the players on. That’s why I was surprised with the decision to put James Forrest over to that left-hand side.
“He can do gown the line as he did on a couple of occasions, but it’s not going to be his natural instinct to do that time after time. I just thought if Celtic were going to give themselves the best opportunity to get something out of the game, they needed to get guys down those wider areas.”
Stewart makes a valid point
In truth, Stewart is probably spot on here. The only way we were going to break Livingston down was by stretching them as opposed to constantly cutting infield.
The rare moments in which we caused some panic in their defence came when we went down the line. Think of a couple of Forrest’s crosses before Odsonne Edouard charged down the left and cut-back for a late equaliser.
Whenever we chose not to go wide, Livingston were simply squeezing the life out of us in the midfield. They were getting tight to our attackers, with far too much influence being placed on Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor to provide a spark.
In fairness, Forrest didn’t do a thing in the first half down the right. He barely ran down the line and often slowed up the play and it allowed Livi to get back into position.
Too often last night were our crosses into the penalty box coming with Livi defenders facing it straight on. The best chance we had of them making an error was if we whipped crosses in when they were tracking back. That will certainly be one of the most frustrating aspects of last night.
It’s something to keep in mind for the next time we visit the Tony Macaroni next season. It turned out to be a good night for us in the title race, but we still need to find a formula to get more positive results in West Lothian.
Do you agree with Stewart? Did we fail to stretch a stubborn Livingston defence wide enough? What did you make of the decision to switch James Forrest over to the left. Let us know in the discussion forum below.
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