Plenty has already been said about Celtic’s defeat to Copenhagen in the Europa League Round of 32.
Blame is rapidly being allotted to various figures at the club from Jozo Simunovic to Neil Lennon to Peter Lawwell.
The truth, as always, is that no single person is at fault for Celtic exiting Europe.
Football is a complicated business and despite it all crystallising in a series of defensive errors last night, there a myriad of reasons why the Bhoys are not heading into the next stage of the competition.
What’s done is done. All Celtic can do now is learn from mistakes made and make sure we’re better next time around.
But what does that involve and what are the most prominent lessons to take away from last night’s defeat?
Defensive investment is needed – Jullien wasn’t enough
The signing of Christopher Jullien has been an undeniable success
The Frenchman has been consistent for large spells of the season so far and has even popped up with a trophy-winning goal and a header against Lazio that allowed us to dream at all in the Europa League.
However, his signing last summer wasn’t enough.
Sure it was a big investment on the club’s part but when you consider that both Dedryck Boyata and Filip Benkovic left at the end of last season, we were kidding ourselves if we thought we could get away with one signing in the position.
Hatem Abd Elhamed and Nir Bitton were ostensibly there to provide cover but by the time January rolled around that clearly proved not to be the case.
With Lennon also switching to a defensive three, why did the club not pursue and sign a centre-half in the last transfer window?
If we’re to progress in Europe than another defender of Jullien’s quality is needed and while that may come at a cost, we know that the club are on sound enough financial footing to make it happen.
Players can’t be risked when they’re not fully fit
It’d be interesting to find out who took the decision on Scott Brown’s fitness and readiness for the second leg. To my, admittedly untrained, eye he was clearly not ready to play in a match of such intensity.
He suffered a calf injury last week in the first leg and subsequently sat out Sunday’s match against Kilmarnock.
Did he self declare for the Celtic Park encounter? Is Neil Lennon happy to let him do that?
At this level, we cannot have players risked in matches as ultimately it’s going to be exposed, even when they are influential dressing room leaders.
Brown couldn’t adequately combat his Copenhagen counterparts and Callum McGregor was often left overwhelmed. That, coupled with Tom Rogic’s lack of suitability when it comes to defending, did not allow us to compete in the middle of the park.
Not only do we need a long-term succession plan for Brown but the manager needs to be more pro-active in making sure he is fully physically capable of getting through a crunch 90 minutes against quality opposition.
Lennon knows his best team – last night wasn’t it
The manager’s team selection last night may have had some enforced changes but one bold call did raise eyebrows when the eleven was announced – Kristoffer Ajer’s inclusion at right-back.
Lennon has placed a lot of faith in youngster Jeremie Frimpong this season but when it came to one of our biggest games, he wasn’t fancied.
It’s true that the teenager didn’t exactly stand out last week in Denmark but his performance was not so bad that he warranted being dropped to the bench.
Not least because it ultimately broke up a long-established defensive partnership of Jullien and Ajer, in favour of one that has played together far less.
With Leigh Griffiths also moved out of the team at the expense of a formation change and Mohamed Elyounoussi, the free-flowing 3-5-2 Celtic of late were not able to show what they could do.
Only Lennon and his coaching staff know why they went down this route but it’s a puzzler, especially when you consider that the manager has been pretty consistent with his team selections this season.
He knows his best team and he should stick with it between now and the end of the campaign.
What are your big takeaways from last night’s Celtic defeat to Copenhagen? Have your say in our new comments section below…
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