Former Celtic manager Davie Hay has praised the man that is currently in the Parkhead hot seat, Neil Lennon. He believes that the Hoops boss deserves plenty of credit for the tactical change he made in the 2-1 win over Lazio.
With the Hoops 1-0 down, he switched to three at the back and the move paid off as the Hoops came roaring back and won the game.
Now Hay, writing in his column in the Evening Times, has paid tribute to the Hoops boss.
“I have always felt that Neil is very tactically astute, and he proved that against Lazio” he said.
“It is good to watch”
“Let’s not forget that Neil was in charge when Celtic beat Barcelona after all, and you don’t pull off a result like that if you don’t know how to set up a team properly. Neil has his men playing with speed and incision, and it is good to watch.”
It is fair to say that perhaps at times, Lennon doesn’t get the credit he sometimes deserves for the decisions he makes on the pitch.
Can’t argue with European results
However, when it comes to Europe especially, you can’t argue with a lot of those results. Now only the aforementioned win over Barcelona, but the wins over Spartak Moscow and Ajax were also feathers in the manager’s cap.
Not many managers would have gone like for like with Lazio when the Italian side were in control of the game. However, that is what Lennon decided to do and the risk paid off.
That might not work in every game, but it did against the Serie A side. Will the Hoops boss repeat such tactics when the teams meet in Italy in a fortnight’s time? You wouldn’t bet against him not doing that. It has been a successful tactic before, it could happen again.
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