Former Celtic striker and outspoken pundit Chris Sutton thinks Steven Gerrard’s severe criticism of his players could have a de-motivating effect as we head even deeper into the ongoing title race, writing in his Daily Record column.
After another weekend of Scottish Premiership action, Neil Lennon’s Hoops remain 10 points clear of the Ibrox side.
A difficult day at Pittodrie against Aberdeen threatened to see us drop points and give up some of our points advantage, but Neil Lennon’s team dug deep and scored a late winner through defender Kristoffer Ajer.
Sutton has noted that Gerrard was exceptionally critical of his team in the wake of defeat to Kilmarnock mid-week and reckons it may not have gone down too well with his dressing room.
As quoted by The Daily Record, the Hoops icon said: “Steven Gerrard better hope all of his players are still on board with him. Because if I was in that Ibrox dressing room, I’d be wondering if the manager had my back or was looking out for himself.
“It seems to be Gerrard’s way when it goes well, yet down to the players when it goes wrong. His comments after Rugby Park perplexed me. He said it was his responsibility. Then proceeded to cane his players for being weak mentally.
“It was like, “Yeah, blame me. But actually, it was really them”. That’s a dangerous approach. That can alienate players by making them feel the manager is protecting his own back at their expense.”
Lennon’s composure
The way Gerrard has spoken in the media recently is in stark contrast to Lennon, who has remained calm and downplayed the bad results this season as much as the stellar ones. The Celtic boss is clearly trying to keep his team on an even keel.
As quoted by the BBC after December’s defeat to Rangers, Lennon said: “We’ve got January coming up, we’ll look to add to the squad. There’s no panic here. We’ve been absolutely sensational basically since August.
“We’re at the same sort of juncture as this time last year. If we get the same response as we did last year we’ll be absolutely fine.”
That’s proven to be exactly the way he should have handled post-match questions on his team, even though some fans understandably didn’t take the result well.
Lennon actually took the time to praise his players’ consistency, rather than criticise them heavily.
Our players look like they are running through walls for the manager right now, even when not playing at their high quality best.
Whether this difference in media approach is having an impact on the pitch can’t really be proven but Sutton clearly thinks it could be influential as the title race rumbles on.
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