Celtic's Kristoffer Ajer rebuffs his manager's claims over confidence issue among squad

Kristoffer Ajer has rejected claims from his manager Neil Lennon that a “confidence” issue is affecting some of the Celtic squad.

Celtic's Kristoffer Ajer says he doesn't feel tea confidence has been dented by recent results, as his manager Neil Lennon had ventured in the wake of the 3-3 draw at Aberdeen (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Lennon made the assertion following the 3-3 draw at Aberdeen that leaves the Scottish champions winless in three games - and smarting over the concession of eight goals in that sequence, following the 2-0 defeat by Rangers and 3-1 loss to Milan inside eight days.

“I don’t feel that,” he said when told of Lennon’s assessment. “I feel really confident. This is a squad full of winners who are not happy when we don’t get three points. Obviously we want to get back to winning games and hope we can do that soon.”

Ajer’s defensive partner Shane Duffy appears one of those toiling. He was badly at fault for the goal that allowed Aberdeen to take a 2-1 lead, before Celtic netted twice inside two minutes only to be pegged back in the final seconds courtesy of Lewis Ferguson’s second spot-kick conversion. However, the Norwegian called for responsibility to be shared equally among those in the club’s colours.

“We attack as a team and we defend as a team. It’s easy for people to single out players but this is a team and it works both ways. We scored three goals collectively and we also conceded three at the other end, including two penalties. It’s all a collective.”

Communication has been cited as a problem, but Ajer dismissed that too. “We communicate great with each other,” he said. s“We all know our jobs and where to be on the pitch so we don’t always have to talk to each other.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.