Celtic great Chris Sutton has been highly critical of Neil Lennon’s team selection for the recent game against Ferencvaros, the Daily Record reports.
The Hoops boss decided to play midfielder Ryan Christie up-front against the Hungarian side. Despite Christie finding the net the move backfired as the Hoops lost 2-1 and exited the competition.
Sutton couldn’t believe the Christie selection, as last season Lennon gambled in the qualifiers against Cluj playing Callum McGregor at left-back and that selection failed as the Hoops lost 4-3.
Sutton feels that Patryk Klimala, who didn’t get off the bench against Ferencvaros, should have been involved in midweek.
“A reshaping of the side led to Callum McGregor being at left-back. The biggest round peg in a square hole ever” he said, writing in his Daily Record column.
“The same mistakes”
“Fast forward to this season and now it’s deemed that Klimala…is not trusted enough to start, so it’s another round peg in a square hole with Ryan Christie playing up front in the absence of Edouard. It’s the same mistakes” he concluded.
It is hard to argue with a single word that Chris Sutton has written. The decisions have backfired badly on the Hoops for the past two seasons.
Manager guilty of overthinking?
Perhaps Neil Lennon is guilty of overthinking about the qualifiers as they are so important to the Hoops. Maybe it is fear of losing that leads the manager to keep faith in Christie, even though he is not a striker.
After all, Christie has been a key man for the Hoops over the past 18 months. However, he has not played as a striker in that time.
You have to imagine that the Christie experiment will not be repeated this season. Hopefully Neil Lennon has learned his lesson when it comes to playing players out of position. It can’t be repeated, or the Hoops could face more poor results as a consequence.
The game against Motherwell on Sunday could be considered a clean slate for Lennon and Celtic. A chance to rebuild again. Hopefully the team that is selected reflects that.
In other news, Celtic have been given hope that Odsonne Edouard will stay at the club this season.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
