St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright has been a Scottish Premiership manager for a long time.
He has been in charge of the Perth side in 2013, and ahead of his team’s meeting with Celtic on Wednesday night, he identified where the Hoops have evolved in recent years.
Wright believes that the Hoops have changed under firstly Brendan Rodgers, and now Neil Lennon, compared to how they used to play under Ronny Deila.
“They didn’t work as hard”
“The difference between Lenny’s team, and Brendan’s team, compared to, say, Ronny Deila’s team, is that when you were against Ronny’s team at times they didn’t work as hard without the ball as these boys do” Wright said, as quoted by the BBC.
“Celtic press the life out of you. They’re intense.”
Wright already has first-hand experience of how just how well the Hoops can play when they are on form.
On the opening day of the Premiership season, Celtic swept to a 7-0 victory over St Johnstone. Hopefully Celtic can have another emphatic victory when the teams meet for the second time this season on Wednesday night.
Hoops have improved massively in recent years
Wright’s comments can’t really be argued with. Celtic have improved massively as a team since Brendan Rodgers took over as manager back in 2016.
The Hoops have won every domestic trophy available since Rodgers, then Neil Lennon became Celtic manager. That’s 10 trophies in a row.
That consistent run of trophies has never been seen before in Scottish football. One reason for Celtic’s success is the way the Hoops play football.
The current Hoops team do like to press teams, as Wright has identified. That leads to opposite sides making mistakes, and Celtic taking the advantage.
Neil Lennon will no doubt like the current Hoops team to evolve even more over the next few seasons. That could bring Celtic even more success.
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