Former Celtic legend Davie Hay has identified where Celtic went wrong in the recent defeat to Livingston. The Hoops lost the match 2-0, and lost top spot in the Premiership table to Rangers.
Hay believes that Neil Lennon should have more changes to the starting line-up. The Hoops made only one change from the side which beat Cluj 2-0 only three days earlier, with Moritz Bauer replacing Hatem Abd Elhamed.
That is a team selection which Hay didn’t expect.
“That surprised me”
“I thought Neil Lennon may tweak the team, but he didn’t, and that surprised me” Hay said, writing for the Evening Times.
“It was an opportunity to give some of the fringe guys a chance while the more established players would know they hadn’t been dropped, only rested” he concluded.
The Hoops boss decided not to make any major changes, and you can understand why. The majority of that team had performed very creditably to defeat Cluj.
Hoops boss would have been criticised if rotated team lost
No doubt if Neil Lennon had made a raft of changes and the Hoops had lost, he would have been criticised for making too many changes.
However, perhaps in hindsight the Hoops boss will reflect that he should have made a few more changes than he did for the game.
But then it was always going to be a tough game against Livingston on an artificial pitch, only a few days after an important European fixture. They may be why Lennon picked the players who had been so successful only a few days before.
It will be interesting to see how strong a team the Hoops boss selects when the Hoops play Aberdeen only three days after facing Lazio later on in October.
That is a decision the Hoops boss will have to get right. The team cannot afford to drop any more points. Hopefully the team selected by Lennon plays well enough to get what will be a vital three points.
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