Celtic boss Neil Lennon on January plans after Rangers defeat

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Celtic manager Neil Lennon has touched on his January plans as he stated that he’ll look to strengthen in some areas.

The Hoops were torn apart by Steven Gerrard’s Rangers in an embarrassing 2-1 home defeat to the Ibrox club this afternoon. Worryingly, Celtic looked a shadow of the side that had won 2-0 at Ibrox back in September. The fact it comes so soon after being dominated during the Betfred Cup final only adds to the concern.

What the result and performance today immediately does is have us asking where we need to strengthen. What seemed like a squad good enough to compete on all fronts suddenly looks as though it needs some tweaking.

Lenny was the first one to admit he’ll do just that in January. However, speaking in the Daily Record, he remains wary of bringing in too many.

“I don’t want to change too much but I’m obviously looking to strengthen in a couple of areas. I’ve said that all along. We’ll try to endeavour to do that and look forward to an exciting second half of the season.”

What did today tell us about the squad?

It’s an odd one. Looking at our bench today, it’s a squad you feel should’ve had more than enough to see off Rangers. The likes of Olivier Ntcham, Tom Rogic, and Leigh Griffiths were all available for selection from it.

Then again, the big problem with the likes of Rogic and Griffiths is that they’ve struggled to rekindle the kind of form that had them as regulars under Brendan Rodgers. Whether we can look at our bench with the same promise as before is questionable.

In our starting XI, Boli Bolingoli didn’t look comfortable. He gave the ball away carelessly and struggled against the high-press that Rangers put on. Lennon does have options on his bench in Jonny Hayes and Greg Taylor, however.

James Forrest, not for the first time against Rangers, was also hiding down the right flank. He offered nothing, but will always remain our first-choice. Even though he continues in failing to impress against our Glasgow rivals, Lenny still seems to love him for this occasion.

Ryan Christie and Mikey Johnston could also do with turning up in this fixture too. Christie has yet to score or assist against the Ibrox men, whilst Johnston was flashy without an end-product.

A new striker is surely on the agenda after Celtic struggled to find help for Odsonne Edouard this afternoon. Griffiths still hasn’t gotten up to speed, and you now have to question just when he will.

A striker, back-up right-winger, and a switch of left-back will be key in January. Whether we add to that with another centre-back also remains to be seen. Kris Ajer didn’t cover himself in glory today, and his partnership with Chris Jullien is still having its teething problems.

At the very least, we know Lennon is going into next month looking to tackle some key problems. If there is a silver lining to come out of today, it’s the fact that the board must now see that improvements must be made.