Last night we were brilliant.
The performance could not have been more different than the one seven weeks ago, when we crashed out of the Champions League.
There were are a number of changes which made the difference.
One was simply having our players in the right positions, and playing guys who were left out of the team that night.
Other players were just bedding into the team.
Some were not yet at their peak.
Lennon didn’t just make an odd team selection that night; his tactical decisions were strange too. There were elements of that performance that were absolutely shambolic. The fears which it opened up were real and justified … because it was a dreadful night.
That evening needed to be redeemed. We were lucky to get Cluj in the draw.
We were lucky that Neil Lennon got his chance to put it right, and last night we did exactly that. The performance was powerful and domineering.
From conceding four goals in the Champions League game we kept a clean sheet.
Everything about last night was bang on.
So what were these factors that made such a huge difference?
Why were we so dominant last night in comparison to that evening?
This article will attempt to answer that question.
Boli Bolingoli Was Unfairly Dropped … Now He’s Showing His Quality.
Boli Bolingoli had a fantastic game last night. He deserves enormous praise.
His delivery for Eddie’s opener was just beautiful, the kind of quality run and first time cross that would have had us drooling had a certain ex-player made it down that wing.
The more I watch this guy, the more I become convinced that some folk were simply determined not to like him because of who he’s not rather than based on his own merits as a player. The stick he took when he was just in the door, learning the ropes at a new club in a new country, was absolutely inexcusable … and even the manager got caught up in it.
I expected it from the media, but the media took much of their inspiration from the murmurings in our stands.
I trust there will be no more of it, because he’s stepped up and now looks a very potent player for us.
He was class last night, absolute class.
Not only does he look better defensively than he has since signing, but he is a fantastic crosser of the ball and, indeed, his range of long-range passing is exemplary as well. Some people have wondered if he isn’t actually a winger; he certainly looks comfortable going up the pitch.
But he turned in a fine defensive display on a big, big evening for us.
Lennon dropped him for the game against Cluj seven weeks ago, and in doing so unbalanced the whole of the team. It was a crazy move and one that owed everything to the media’s campaign to destabilise the player who had cost us £3 million.
Last night he was one of the reasons we won the match.
It’s fair to say that the manager realises the error here.
Bolingoli has barely been out of the side since, and this is even more amazing when you consider there’s a £2 million full-back – Greg Taylor – we’ve not even seen yet.
We Would Never Have Lost Four With Jullien On The Park.
If there was absolute nonsense being talked and written about Bolingoli, who the fans had at least got a chance to see, then how to understand, even for a second, the garbage that was being spoken and written about Christopher Jullien?
He hadn’t even played 90 minutes before people were writing him off.
His being dropped seven weeks ago was taken a sign that the manager didn’t trust him when it mattered. There was even a lot of nonsensical speculation that Lennon hadn’t signed either player and that we’d effectively written off £10 million. Kris Boyd authored a piece along those lines.
But Jullien looks every inch the £7 million footballer.
He has impressed in every match since, including at Ibrox where he was magnificent.
He also had a great game in Rennes, on his return to France. Last night he got booked at the start of the second half and the hacks would have been drooling over the pressure it put him under; he never showed any sign of it.
Instead, he continued to be fierce in the tackle and won many 50/50 balls.
He just oozes confidence and calm, no matter the opposition.
He didn’t play seven weeks ago, an error on the manager’s part that may be even greater than the decision not to play Bolingoli.
Their opening goal that night was a left-footed cross into the box which the big man would have dealt with all day long.
I thought his presence would have made a difference with the penalty decision – Brown certainly would not have acted so rashly – and for the third too.
I can’t imagine, for one moment, that we’d have lost four with him on the park.
He has been a colossus, and he’s only going to get better.
Elyounoussi Wasn’t In The Team. He Terrorised Them Last Night.
Elyounoussi is a fantastic footballer, and he would almost certainly have made a difference in the first leg had he been signed then.
The combination of him and Bolingoli worked especially well as the full-back bombing up the wing allowed Elyounoussi the chance to cut inside, where his dancing feet caused havoc whenever he was on the ball.
At a crucial point seven weeks ago we took off Mikey and brought on Lewis Morgan; even with the best will in the world, Morgan is not at the level of the boy we brought on loan from Southampton.
The way we’re set up, I don’t think a conventional winger works half as well as someone capable of playing the inside forward role … and he does it brilliantly.
Bolingoli’s ability to cross the ball negates the need for us to have a Lewis Morgan out wide.
Elyounoussi is a very different type of player – more in the mould of a James Forrest or a Scott Sinclair, capable of using his technical ability to get past opponents and open up space.
That’s why he made such a big difference in last night’s game.
It was good to see him getting the goal his performance deserved.
With he and Bolingoli on the left we looked far stronger on that side of the pitch than we did seven weeks ago.
It was a crucial component in us getting the win.
Forster Might Not Have Sent Us Through … But We Wouldn’t Have Lost Four Either.
I thought that Scott Bain had a torrid time that night, I really did.
If the manager was not already having doubts that night would have given him something to think about.
If he was already wondering whether or two keepers could be relied on, it would have clarified his thinking and given made signing a goalkeeper a priority.
Had Forster been in goal, I do believe the result would have been different.
A good goalkeeper inspires confidence in his defenders.
He marshals the back line.
I’ve watched Forster do that. I’ve seen the way the players respond to it.
I am usually not happy about players returning to the club after they’ve left, but it’s frustrating to think we’ll probably not be able to hang onto Fraser after his loan deal ends, because I really would take him back in a second now.
We conceded the second goal seven weeks ago to a penalty; would Fraser have saved it?
He’d have been confident.
I thought Bain could have dealt with the first save for the third better. The fourth is just daft.
I am not saying that Forster would have been the difference between us going through and us going out, but I don’t believe we’d have lost four with him on the pitch.
His signing has been crucial.
He has made a huge impact already.
Odsonne Played Well That Night, But Right Now He’s On Fire.
Edouard scored a crucial goal that night, but on the form he’s in just now he would have torn them to pieces and probably bagged more than one.
Their defence looked shaky enough; he capitalised on a terrible error at the heart of it for the second goal.
He has improved with every game he’s played this season.
He has great footwork, but also a work ethic which sets him apart from other players.
I always thought Dembele looked lethargic at times; Edouard, in contrast, never stops working.
He’s getting better all the time.
He’s formed devastating partnerships in the team now.
I think if he’d come up against them as they were that night – and they came to Parkhead with a weakened team because of injuries – he’d have scored a hatful on his own.
Since that game, he’s really caught fire.
His goal at Ibrox was sheer class and he went straight from there to the French Under 21 team where he was exceptional.
He has never been so confident or in such form.
He is scoring goals, assisting goals … defences are terrified of him.
He was excellent again last night, but with so much at stake he’d have found an extra level and that would definitely have made a huge difference.
It would have put us in the next round, and I do not doubt that for one second.
Ryan Christie Was Not Fully Unleashed That Night. This Was A Mistake.
That night, Lennon made a number of crucial decisions and one of them was to change the midfield composition to the detriment of almost every player in it.
Aside from Callum McGregor, nobody was impacted more than Ryan Christie, who had to play a deeper role instead of being given the roving commission he’s enjoyed since the season began.
He scored that night, but that came after Lennon had slightly altered the team shape and got him forward.
Almost immediately, he combined marvellously with Edouard and got the goal.
That goal would have been enough to put us through but for what followed.
With Ryan not fixed to one spot last night, he was able to completely run the creative side of the game.
And on top of that, he covered acres of space in the middle of the park too. I have never seen him work so hard. He was unplayable. I thought he was a good candidate for the man of the match award. I thought his performance was incredible.
He has become a potent weapon in our arsenal, and this is incredible when you consider that this time last year Ryan Christie was barely a first team player and had looked set to leave the club in January after possible moves to Hibs and Aberdeen had come to naught.
How fortunate we are that it never came to pass.
Abd Elhamed Was Just Settling Into The Team. He Now Looks Superb.
Adb Elhamed was brilliant last night. He has been brilliant in almost every game I’ve watched him.
He wasn’t terrible seven weeks ago, but he was very new to the team and we all wondered what kind of player we were getting.
He has grown into his place fast.
He looks dangerous coming down the right, in tandem with Bolingoli on the left.
Seven weeks ago he did provide an assist for Edouard, but he also got caught a few times on the right. He wasn’t clear on the defenders next to him either, as we lacked a settled backline.
That backline is now settled and he is strong and aggressive.
Had he just a little more time in the side and you can only wonder how things would have gone. He was caught out for the opener seven weeks ago and I thought responsible in some ways for the third and fourth … his positional sense wasn’t quite right yet.
More time in the team was always going to resolve that.
Last night, playing with the partners he has come to know properly, he looked great.
He was solid and dependable. He didn’t get forward as much as in previous matches but he always looked dangerous. He is forming a great partnership with Forrest, and that’s going to be crucial and get us a lot of goals and assists as the season goes on.
A few more games was all he needed prior to the game seven weeks ago … if he’d had them, if he’d been signed just a little earlier, we’d have gone through.
Neil Lennon Made Mistakes That Night … But Learned From All Of Them.
The manager has learned a lot from that game.
One of the things he learned was the true value of Callum McGregor in the middle of the park.
I’m going to do a separate piece on Callum, who I thought was immense last night.
His absence in the middle of the pitch seven weeks ago was what cost us more than any other factor.
Neil knows that now. He has made a major decision on Callum now and that decision is bearing fruit in so many ways.
On top of that, the manager seems to have settled on his favourite players for each position.
I think the one that was still up for grabs last night was the debate over Elyounoussi.
I think the loanee has made the case for staying in the team.
Give Lennon enormous credit for his response to that result. We haven’t lost since for starters. He spotted where the holes were in the team – including between the sticks. It’s actually very impressive the way he changed things up in the aftermath of that game.
We have a very enviable European record for this campaign now.
The results in the two group games have been excellent, but so too was the tremendous display in Stockholm and the draw we got away in Romania. That result, and the performance that night, were completely eclipsed by the home result, and that is simply not fair.
Look, he made huge mistakes for the Champions League game.
The team selection, the tactics, he got them badly wrong.
He changed the shape, the dynamics, he threw people off their game … but you can only hope a manager learns and moves on … and he has.
We are in a very good place with this guy in charge.
We can look forward to the rest of this campaign with a lot of optimism.
It’s hard to believe how radically different our team looks from that night.
The manager is a big part of the reason why.
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