As the international break drags on – and it hasn’t been bad so far, I’m not saying it has – the coaching staff at Celtic will be busy putting together their plans for the next few matches. It seems clear that we are building a squad which gives us varying tactical options.
To be able to swap tactics requires a combination of the right personnel and the right plan. We come up against packed defences every week in Scotland and there are only a few ways of drawing the opposition out of their favoured formations so we can pick them off.
The decisions Lennon makes in this regard will determine the course of our season to come.
If he makes the right choices we will win ten in a row.
If he makes the wrong ones we are going to struggle, and perhaps even see it slipping away from us.
Neil Lennon knows this, and that’s why he’s insisted on getting certain players in certain positions above others. The team seems ready, but for a few positions where we still need cover. This article will look at the various options – and the personnel – which are open to us going forward. Lennon has used all of these at one time or another.
The question as to which we’ll use here will determine our fate.
This article will be split into two main sections, the personnel and the tactics.
The Role Of The Midfielders
The midfielders are going to be crucial to our success or failure, and at the time of writing we have a number of them. We may yet lose a couple before the window closes, but at this moment in time they give us an array of tactical options which are not available to any other club.
I am going to focus on the central midfielders for the moment, and the way they fit into the system overall. They can fulfil any number of roles.
Scott Brown can play as a defensive midfielder or as a playmaker.
In the first system he stays back and patrols the area in front of the defence.
In the other role he moves a little further forward and sets up the attacks. Some think he lacks the legs for either role now … actually, I think as a playmaker he will be more good to us as all the essentially has to do is pass the ball rather than chase it as he used to do. The difficulty is, he’s the best we have in that position.
Callum McGregor can play in both of those roles, and he can also play further up the pitch, as an attacking player.
Right now he spends a lot of his time covering for Brown … that limits his effectiveness in our team, I think. Callum is one of the players the media seems to think could leave in this window, but I actually doubt that he will.
Soro could step in and do the Brown role if he was given a chance; it’s what he was signed for I’d presume, but we haven’t seen a single thing from him yet to give us an idea of that.
Is that the fault of the manager, for going with his favourites, or just an acknowledgement that Soro, for all his obvious talent, isn’t quite ready for the first team yet?
A bit of both I think, right now. We will see him.
Ntcham is the wild card.
There are suggestions in his game that he’s as versatile as McGregor, capable of playing three different midfield roles, as a defensive player, a playmaker and as an attacking footballer supporting the strikers. But I couldn’t actually tell you where he excels.
I think he’s probably a playmaker, but he can be lazy and lax and that’s the last thing you want those players to be.
But he is a formidable weapon because you can put him in those different roles.
Which brings us to Ryan Christie, who I’ve watched played behind the strikers, out wide right, out wide left, in a central midfield role and even up front under Lennon’s bonkers no forwards system. Which hopefully we’ll never see rear its ugly head again.
The last midfielder is David Turnbull. He’s a playmaker but is also capable of getting forward and scoring goals; indeed, it was the reason we went for him.
He can play, for sure, and I like his range of passing and his coolness on the ball.
It’s the decision about which combination of these guys to play – and in what roles – that will be probably the most important that Lennon makes. Some say our midfield still looks lightweight; actually we do have two players who aren’t mentioned above who could add some steel to it … Nir Bitton and Kris Ajer. But that overcomplicates things a bit.
It’ll be a combination of the guys I’ve written about … they will decide our season.
James Forrest: Where does he fit in?
James Forrest’s role in this team is a difficult one to suss out.
On one hand, I can see why the manager would probably want him to play whatever the system was, but on the other that’s plainly unrealistic as certain formations are not going to able to accommodate him.
Forrest’s advantages are that he scores goals and makes them, he can play in a number of key positions and moreover is our only natural choice in one of them. That’s no small thing.
The difficulty is that Forrest is totally unsuited to playing in certain versions of Lennon’s three at the back and two up front system. If we’re looking for defensive cover on the flanks we can’t field him in the right midfield or left midfield roles because he doesn’t have any of the qualities which are required for those types of systems.
In the 4-2-3-1 Lennon can get Forrest into the same team as a full-back, but when you go three at the back you’re sacrificing either your full-backs or your wingers. Forrest, who can play left or right or behind the forwards in the 4-2-3-1 is a great attacking weapon to have, but when you need to cover your three-man backline he’s useless.
Lennon can’t see past Forrest at times. But he’s got a big decision to make if he’s going to three at the back system. Does he drop one of his favourite sons, or does he give the team the balance in that area of the pitch which it desperately needs?
We’ll find out I guess.
The Elyounoussi Conundrum
If Forrest is a difficult one, what to say for Mo Elyounoussi?
He is predominantly left-sided as Forrest plays on the right.
He cannot cover for defenders, so there’s a limit to the systems and formations he can play in. But whereas Forrest can in Elyounoussi’s left sided midfield role he can’t play wide right like Forrest, so whatever limitations exist for James exist for him too.
He is a fantastic attacking weapon, with great feet and a lot of skill.
He’s a big game player as well and we’re lucky to have him in the squad. As part of our 4-2-3-1 playing style he is invaluable but it’s difficult to see a role for him in a different one except in the 3-5-2 which utilises wingers instead of wing-backs.
Yet the manager has already made it clear with his selection of Greg Taylor even when we’re playing a 3-5-2, that he’d rather play wing-backs. Furthermore, if Bolingoli hadn’t screwed up he’d be an ever better pick in that system, depending on which variant we play.
Elyounoussi will have to be brilliant to keep his place in a 3-5-2 … and that will make him play better and work harder.
But in certain variants of the system – such as those we might use in Europe – I don’t really see a clear role for him unless it’s behind the strikers, where he can definitely play but which is nowhere near his best position in the team.
Three At The Back? But Which Three?
Don’t assume, if we go three at the back, that our defensive line will definitely be Ajer, Jullien and Duffy.
There will be room in that system for Bitton and for Abd Elhamed as well, not to mention any other defender we go out there and get.
One of the strengths of three at the back, in a Scottish setting, is that we can use one of them as an auxiliary midfielder, especially if we’re playing with wing backs as opposed to wingers. In that role, Ajer has proved to be excellent but Nir Bitton would be even better as he is a natural midfield player and one with exceptionally passing ability.
We have always liked defenders who can hold the ball and get forward to support the midfield and even the attacks.
With three at the back we have more opportunity to do this than ever before, so don’t rule out that we might fancy Bitton as a good bet.
Where Ajer might be better is at playing as the last line of defence. At set pieces it would be mad not to have Duffy and Jullien hovering around the opposition penalty area. A three at the back system allows us to have that central defender guarding against the counter attack.
And Ajer is a better bet at that than Bitton or Abd Elhamed would be.
These seem like minor choices in some ways, but in fact they are going to be crucial in deciding how we play. It’s another area where it might look as if Lennon has straightforward decisions to make but where, actually, things are more complex than they seem.
And here’s a question; if we’re sticking with the 4-2-3-1 or some variation of four at the back, which two central defenders to do you give the nod to?
Duffy and Jullien?
Jullien and Ajer or Duffy and Ajer?
Or do you go even further and play, for example, Duffy and Bitton?
There are choices to be made in almost every area of the team.
The Striker Situation
One striker or two strikers? Might there be a time this season when we play with three? And if we do, what will be the makeup for the strike force?
It’s worth pointing out that whatever we do we’re going to get criticism from right across the media, from all those talking heads who love to speculate and stir the soup when it comes to our squad. If we go with one up front it’ll be “Lennon doesn’t trust the others” and if it’s two up front it’ll be “he doesn’t trust the one who’s not playing.”
We’ve seen it all before from our hacks.
In any circumstances I can think of, the media will be having a long session on which of our strikers is fourth choice, and “surplus to requirements.” The media problem is inevitable. No such questions will be asked at Ibrox if Morelos is still there in a month’s time.
But the tactical element of it is interesting, because it’s clear that Griffiths can still score goals if he’s fit and focussed and if the manager is willing to give him another chance. Ajeti looks a natural born predator and Klimala definitely has the right skill-set.
There are Celtic fans who, in a team where everyone was fit, will want the Edouard-Griffiths partnership. You have to wonder if Lennon would prefer that too in an ideal world, although the signing of Ajeti, a long term club target, suggests not.
Here’s the thing; assume Edouard is off next season. Ajeti and A.N. Other will presumably be the strike force afterwards. Is Klimala fancied for that role, and does that not mean that we have to see that partnership play together to find out if it works?
Does the future involve Griffiths, at all, in any form, in any manner and if so will we see him back in the team alongside one of these two? Tactically, there’s even scope for going with a 4-3-3 in certain games … and you would think no defence in Scotland would be able to stand up to that.
Having four strikers does open up that tantalising possibility.
These Are The Players That Let Us Play With Numerous Formations
These are the players who give our squad its versatility.
The only players not in this list are our full-backs, but that’s sort of the point. When I do the tactics section of this piece tomorrow I’ll cover them and why they might be the most important players in whatever formation Lennon decides to field.
The news, today, that we’re looking at a left back on loan from PSG – a club and a league which has been good for us – is not a surprise in the least.
I’m going to do a piece tomorrow specifically on that position, as it’s the one where we really need to think long and hard about what we want to do.
If you presume that Bolingoli is done in the team – and by the way, Lennon has left the door open, just a crack – then we really do need another player on that side of the pitch.
Because much of the tactical plan depends on it.
But I’ll cover that in part two of the article.
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