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Celtic’s winless streak in all competitions was extended to a fifth game with Sunday’s 1-1 draw against St Johnstone and coach Neil Lennon faces mounting pressure.
Their defending champions are 13 points behind Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers, albeit with two games in hand, outside of the League Cup and outside of Europe after Thursday’s tie against Lille in the Europa League.
Sportscene insiders Shaun Maloney, a former Lennon teammate at Celtic, and Michael Stewart assess the challenge now facing a club that has known nothing but national success for the past four seasons.
‘He will have more time’
Lennon has the backing of Celtic’s main shareholder, Dermot Desmond, and CEO Peter Lawwell, but acknowledged that their support was not unconditional.
Maloney was asked if Lennon could survive the latest setback.
“That question gets harder to answer with every game they don’t win,” said the former Scottish midfielder.
“But it has been five days since the board left, supported him, asked for support to be together. That makes me think he will have more time.”
Celtic have managed just three goals in their last three domestic games, which is well below their normal goal rate in Scotland. Lennon’s team averaged just under three per game in the Premiership last season.
James Forrest, a frequent scorer and provider for Celtic in recent years, has been injured since late September and Lennon has cut and traded his players wide in recent games.
“When you try to get some players to expand, you want them to have a one-on-one threat,” Maloney said.
“And at the moment Celtic and the profile of the players that they have, they really don’t have that in those broad areas.”
Former Hearts, Hibernian and Scotland midfielder Stewart agrees.
“They don’t have players right now who are confident and capable of committing players one on one,” he said.
“They don’t have overloads in those areas either, it gets too tight and teams know how to play against that. They trust they can catch Celtic on the fast break.”
‘A toxic combination’
Celtic won 11 of their first 13 games in all competitions this term, but a 2-0 loss at home to the Rangers in October fueled their current two-win streak of 12.
And Stewart believes the Old Firm derby loss “has really decimated Celtic.”
“Since that Rangers game, it has collapsed.” “Many of the difficulties that could be seen when they won the games have come to the fore since that defeat.
“They can’t take teams down and they can’t defend and they are being punished for that. It’s a toxic combination.”
