Michael Stewart certainly provides a lot of terrific insight and honest analysis to Scottish football, but Neil Lennon must avoid his idea of going with a back four today.
Stewart pondered in his Scottish Sun column yesterday that judging by the last few performances, whether Lennon would consider changing things to a defensve quartet against Hibs today.
The idea of course being that Jack Ross’ men won’t just sit in and that they have a massive threat down the right side through Martin Boyle.
But that would be a massive hammer blow to the 3-5-2 – the formation which favoured Celtic so well between January and March of 2020.
Celtic need to start getting into a mind-set domestically and a way of playing that gives our attacking threats their best chance to shine. The 3-5-2 does that. It’s vital that we learn to use it to combat a variety of threats in Scottish football so that we can always have a strike partnership in the final third.
With Boyle presenting a big threat down the right, that should be easily solvable for Lennon.
Greg Taylor will likely be the left wing-back today. If that’s the case, then simply drop him deeper and allow him to focus on watching Boyle’s counter attacking runs. The manager can also bring Callum McGregor over a touch to help cover whenever Taylor needs to get into an attacking position to provide an option. Halting Boyle shouldn’t be a massive worry.
Put some attacking onus on Frimpong this afternoon
Celtic can also deal with most of our attacking threat today coming down the right side through Jeremie Frimpong. Especially taking into account that Hibs don’t have the same threat down the left flank as they do on the right.
Switching to a back four would just be a negative look. If we’re going to start being more defensive against Hibs at Celtic Park then what’s the point in even trying to develop a 3-5-2? Just so we can use it against St Mirren and Livingston? We should have the confidence to play the system and adapt against the likes of Hibs/Aberdeen/Kilmarnock etc.
We can’t forget how boring and cumbersome Celtic looked in a 4-2-3-1 formation earlier on this season. Odsonne Edouard was far too isolated, and given his recent slump, he needs a partner in order to get firing again.
Yes, there’s an argument for a 4-4-2 or a 4-1-3-2, but we have a system in the 3-5-2 that we know can work for us. The more we use it, the better Celtic will become with it. It’s also valuable for us to flood the midfield and try to overpower Hibs and latch onto loose balls. That’s where much of our joy may come this afternoon.
Using systems like a 4-4-2 would leave us far too slow in the midfield, especially with no signs of Scott Brown being rested. The same goes with a 4-1-3-2. Having three central midfielders in there suits us nicely.
We also just about have all four of our first-team strikers available to us. It’s essential they get used and rotated, and a two-striker system is the most efficient way of doing that.
If Lennon goes with a back four, which will then lead to him almost certainly playing one up top, it puts a halt to our progress. This isn’t Barcelona we’re playing today, it’s Hibs. And at Celtic Park too.
Show some faith in the system and let’s start overpowering teams using what we’re good at. Hibs will create chances, but in a 3-5-2, we’ll create more, especially with Jack Ross’ side almost certain to come out of their shell.
In other news, Scott Brown has been defended by a BBC pundit who hit out at “hypocritical” criticism of him.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
