The team is more in need of a good shake than any Celtic side I’ve seen in a long time.
Some players are more in need of a major pick-me-up than others though.
There are players who have simply failed to show up for business so far, and Lennon must be frustrated and the fans most certainly are.
Few in the squad can honestly say they’ve given us a proper shift … but some really do need to up their game in a big, big way.
In this article I want to look at those who owe us big performances, and who most need to be aware that patience is running out with them.
I’m not just talking about guys who are playing badly; every player in this club has gone through a spell in this campaign so far where they haven’t produced.
I’m talking about those from whom a lot is expected and who aren’t at the races right now.
These are the guys who are terribly off form or whose big reputations aren’t being remotely justified at the moment.
These are the guys who are really letting us down.
Vasilios Barkas
In some ways, I feel bad for the big keeper. A Celtic goalkeeper is under pressure because he spends most of a game doing nothing but watching the action. They don’t always have much more to do, and that can affect their concentration.
As a result, any keeper we have is going to be judged on a mere handful of moments.
Those few keepers who seem to perform heroics in those moments get the praise … those who don’t get stick. It doesn’t matter if the keepers themselves are to blame in some of these cases … goalies are crucified for their mistakes in a way no other players are.
I have urged time for Barkas and I still do, but he really does need to start inspiring confidence. I thought he was shaky again last night with the goals. Certainly, at the weekend, you can point the finger at him for the first and possibly the second too.
A good keeper inspires confidence in his defence … perhaps one of the reasons this defence looks all over the place is that they don’t believe in the guy behind them. If that’s true we’re in deep trouble, but he can still turn it around.
Make a couple of saves, and things will start to settle down. Get the confidence back of the players and the fans.
The media will back off and leave him alone.
This guy has come here with a big reputation and for big bucks.
I have no doubt we’ve got ourselves a good goalie.
But he has to start showing it soon.
Shane Duffy
Kissing the badge is not enough, Shane.
It never has been and it never will be.
Celtic fans have seen it all before, and they want to see more from a player than just expressions of love and devotion.
He arrived at Parkhead with the strut of a Premiership player slumming it for a wee while, but he’s not the first and won’t be the last to find this is a tougher gig than that.
Duffy can be a colossal weapon in our arsenal and I have no doubt that when this team finds its own rhythm and its own swagger that he will be.
Right now he’s a liability to that cause because he is unfocussed and looks a yard slow.
Last night he was caught totally off balance by the Milan attack.
I don’t blame him for the first goal because from his positon he’d have had to be either an extra three feet tall or able to spring like a kangaroo. The second goal was awful for him; he was completely suckered into coming wide right and leaving a big gap in the centre of defence where he was meant to be.
The third was terrible. He was miles too slow in getting back.
Against Sevco he was equally shocking, and on one occasion tried to play football under pressure and almost sold us down the river. He needs to stop trying to be a footballer; he was brought to give us a physical presence and power in the air.
He was not brought to be Virgil Van Dijk; he is a player whose career has been on keeping it simple.
It’s surely not too much to ask.
He really has to start producing soon.
Fans are already questioning the signing.
I think they are premature, but it has not been a glorious start.
Callum McGregor
I’ve been disappointed with Callum since this season started, save for a couple of matches where he got himself up the park and scored a couple of goals.
In those games he was the Callum McGregor of the Rodgers era, getting up and down the pitch and doing both defensive and attacking jobs.
This season has been very disappointing indeed.
Part of this is whatever Lennon has done with the tactics; I understand that. Callum is playing a much more withdrawn role.
He spends most of the game these days covering defensive duties to keep the pressure off Scott Brown.
But he’s clearly frustrated in that job.
Too many of his passes go astray. He drifts in and out of the game. He shows his wonderful talents only in small flashes.
When he is rocking this team is too, because Callum is far and away the best midfield player in the country. He was the string-puller during the Treble Treble campaigns, and he weighed in with goals and assists. He looks a shadow of that player right now.
It is amazing that in spite of this he’s still one of our most consistent performers. This is a guy who is playing way below his best but who still looks indispensable.
This is a tribute to his talents. But we are not seeing those talents given full expression right now.
Callum looks distracted or fed up.
When he shakes that off we’ll see a show.
Olivier Ntcham
The most frustrating player in the Celtic team, by far.
On his day Olivier Ntcham shows you why top clubs from across Europe are interested in his signature.
When he’s meandering around the pitch as if he’s on a holiday beach you wonder why we ever paid £4 million for him and whether we could ever get it back.
Sometimes you have those thoughts in the same game of football.
There is no question that Ntcham is a talented footballer, capable of greatness.
There is no question that he can also be careless and lazy. You never know which version of him you are going to get. There are games in which he has been outstanding, a player right out of the top drawer, and others where he has been absolutely anonymous.
Lately, he has been dreadful.
Part of that, as I said about Callum, is being played out of position; he is not a number 10, playing in behind the strikers, but Lennon has shoehorned him into that role.
I do get the general idea; when Ryan Christie is either unavailable for that job – because he’s out of the team or playing as a striker or out wide – Lennon has to put someone there, but the manager also has a fixation with having his best three central midfielders in the team at one time, even if utilising Olivier along with Brown and McGregor means playing out of position.
But there is no excuse for a top technical footballer failing to pass the ball well and there’s certainly no excuse for him wandering around without making the least effort.
He is too often disinterested or careless … neither endears him to the fans and especially in games where others are underperforming and the team as a whole isn’t clicking.
There are a lot of our fans who would sell Ntcham at the earliest opportunity.
For such a talented player it is a shame.
But the truth is, there are too many days on which we wouldn’t miss him if he wasn’t there.
He really has to change that, pronto.
Mohammed Elyounoussi
Another player with immense talent who has become painful to watch recently.
Last seasons he showed flashes not of brilliance but of utter genius.
He is clearly an immense footballer who is well capable of playing at the top of the game.
Just watch the highlights of some of his games with Celtic, Southampton and Basle; you could easily get one of those YouTube videos out of him that has people drooling. A single game – Basel versus Manchester City from a few years back, shows a football who could play just about anywhere.
But he is so inconsistent.
He frequently fails to do simple stuff.
He makes daft mistakes.
There are times when he is on the ball and runs straight into defenders without the slightest attempt to evade them or show his trickery.
Part of the problem – and I keep writing this – is that he’s often played in unfamiliar positions.
Lennon has played him in the ten role and as a striker when in fact he’s a left sided player who is at his best on the wing and cutting inside.
His efforts as a forward have been embarrassingly bad, but the manager sometimes seems determined to shoehorn him into the team somewhere.
When we play the 4-2-3-1 he is a natural on the left … in the 3-5-2 Lennon clearly doesn’t fancy him because of his lack of a defensive game … this is why it was Taylor and Laxalt who were preferred.
I want to see him on the left of a 3-5-2.
I think he could do a real job for us as part of that setup.
But he has to find his consistency and soon … or he’s not going to play at all, anywhere.
Odsonne Edouard
It pains me to write this but Odsonne Edouard has been hugely disappointing this season so far, when he has played, which in itself isn’t often enough.
We can’t blame him for the situation he’s found himself in with the bug, but there are suspicions that on some weeks he just hasn’t been in interested and that would be almost unforgivable.
In the matches where he has been in the team most fans have been disappointed.
He has not hit the heights of last season, when he was the player of the year by a mile.
Eddie is too good not to be in the starting eleven when he’s fit, but we need to see a major improvement in his performances once he returns, and that has to happen quickly.
What’s worse is that every bad game he plays increases speculation that he doesn’t’ want to be at Celtic Park any longer.
That is a problem in itself.
Edouard is said to be in talks about a new deal; I hope it’s true, even if he wants a release clause written into it.
If that’s at a level the club is comfortable with then a new contract is a good deal for everyone involved. The hope is that it settles things down.
Edouard is too important to our hopes for ten to look this situation drag on.
For his sake and ours we need to clean this up fast.
But his own attitude needs to undergo a major improvement as a result.
If he wants that big move he’s not going to get it playing like this.
Neil Lennon
No article like this would be complete without looking at the manager, and of all the people at the club who need to seriously up their game, the most obvious is the guy in the dugout.
I was pleased to hear him take responsibility for the defeat against the Ibrox club on his own shoulders.
I am pleased to hear him defending the players.
I am pleased that he’s engaging in a little introspection at the moment, and pleased that he has said not only that results are important but that performances are too.
It’s the performances that will get the confidence back.
Neil Lennon has to really step it up though.
He makes too many bad tactical decisions these days, and at times during games he seems completely disengaged. He sits on the bench as if he’s content for others to do the heavy lifting. The Lennon of old was forever on his feet, patrolling his technical area, giving instructions, leading from the side-lines.
This new Lennon looks like he’d rather be at home in front of the telly.
It’s as if he’s lost sight of what’s at stake here; this is his legacy we’re talking about.
Nothing he’s done up until now will matter if he meekly surrenders ten in a row from that dugout seat.
I didn’t think I’d ever see Lennon zoned out from that threat.
It is worrying. I worry for him as well as for us.
Those above Lennon at Celtic Park are equally concerned, but their responsibility is not just to the manager but the club as a whole and they will not wait too long for the manager to start pulling this together.
Performances need to improve, and it has to start with him.