Lennon holds hands up and admits he got team ‘wrong’

The importance of getting his team line-up right for tonight’s Scottish Communities League Cup third-round tie away to Ross County has been ratcheted up because, by Lennon’s own admission, he didn’t do that for the 4-2 derby loss. He was, however, prepared to defend the pick that has seen the most rotten produce flung his way: the selection of the Celtic support’s permanent scapegoat Georgios Samaras. And threatened to reach for his own ammunition when the subject turned to the newspaper column of John Hartson yesterday, in which the Welshman questioned the Celtic players mental toughness.

“When you lose a game like we did, and the manner we did, I expect to be criticised,” Lennon said. “You accept it, whether you agree with it or not. The manner we lost was concerning and I have to look at myself and ask: did I pick the right team? On reflection, when you concede four goals obviously not, so then I need to look at myself. I need to find a consistent back four. A few players have been injured, suspended or a bit off colour so I need to find a consistent run in the back four where everyone’s comfortable in it and the goalkeeper’s comfortable with it and we’ll take things from there.

“I’m not stubborn enough to stick two fingers up to the critics and say: ‘You are wrong, I’m playing him to spite you’. I don’t do that at all. I play [Samaras] because I think he is an asset to what we are trying to do certainly in a venue like Ibrox, and he’s proved that over the past. [He was preferred over Anthony Stokes] because of the physicality of it. We need to get up the pitch and need height at set-pieces. He didn’t have his best game on Sunday but you can point the finger probably at eight or nine others as well.”

Hartson pointed fingers in every direction. “That’s brilliant from John, that. He obviously knows what he’s talking about,” said a curling-lipped Lennon when the “mental toughness” criticism was put to him. “He obviously knows what he’s talking about. He obviously didn’t watch the games last season where we showed plenty mental toughness. I’m not going to panic over one game. Our form has been patchy and I’m expecting some of our players who have been off-form to start finding their feet and hitting form. I want us to be more consistent. Not just in terms of results but throughout the games, our performances.”

Asked if he was hacked off when former players and colleagues had a go, Lennon said: “No, this is the environment you work in. Yes, they should know better but they’ve got a job to do and some try to play devil’s advocate and some just give their opinion. Whether it’s an opinion I value or not is irrelevant one way or another. You know they are paid by radio stations or newspapers to criticise or report or whatever. You know I’m not expecting anyone to say ‘oh, Lenny got it bang on’ after we’ve lost 4-2. You have to accept a certain level of criticism, that’s the nature of it.”

What was different about Sunday from any defeat Celtic have previously suffered in Lennon’s near-17-month tenure is how much the club’s support laid the blame for it at the feet of the Irishman. After Sunday they saw these as clay. Previously they had looked upon them almost as if they belonged to a plaster-cast saint. However, they now fear he is overseeing a reverse that could back-pedal their team to where they were a year ago. “I haven’t seen or heard any anger directed at me,” Lennon said. “But I can understand the supporters being angry. That’s okay – that’s the fallout from these games. There’s one thing that’s non-negotiable in the fans’ eyes and that’s work-rate. There was certainly a lack of that in the second half, individually and collectively, and it’s not like us. The commitment and dig wasn’t there in the second half.”

Neither was Kris Commons, who later tweeted he was fit enough but left out. The disappearance of one of the club’s stellar performers last season following his £300,000 move from Derby has been one of the notable developments as Celtic fortunes have downturned with only two wins in their past seven games. Lennon maintained their had been no fall-out with the player whose loss of status was far less sinister – and not down to him bulking up.

“I think he’s trying too hard,” said Lennon, who explained he left him out because he had complained of stiffness in the groin area on the Friday. “We’ve given him a break now, so he’ll come back into contention for the next few games and he’s looked a bit brighter in training and just needs to get out there and play, and play naturally.

“It is not a physical thing, it’s a mental thing and I think he’s just been getting frustrated with himself more than anything else. He’s physically fit, his body fat is very low, he’s not overweight or anything like that. He’s a bit like, me, bit like Scott McDonald, has that chunky squat build that makes you look a little bit bigger than you normally appear.”

Starting at Dingwall, Celtic’s next four games before the international break – they face Inverness at home at the weekend, entertain Udinese in the Europa League and then face Hearts at Tynecastle – are bigger than they might have appeared a fortnight ago. Lennon will be without Scott Brown and Samaras through injury but intends to field a strong team tonight as he bids to avoid a repeat of the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat in April 2010 that looked like it might end his Celtic management stint when it had barely begun.

He accepts his team must start producing in the Highlands tonight. “I believe in the players. They have proved in the past they are strong and talented,” he said. “But they need to find their form very, very quickly, otherwise. . .” He then drew his finger across his throat while smiling. Asked this gesture meant an end for his players or him, he answered: “Both”.