Neil Lennon points to unfit and absent attackers as he defends Celtic's performance against Rangers

Neil Lennon has defended Celtic’s attacking performance in the 2-0 defeat to Rangers despite the reigning champions failing to have a shot on target the entire 90 minutes.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon watched his side lose 2-0 to Rangers. Picture: SNSCeltic manager Neil Lennon watched his side lose 2-0 to Rangers. Picture: SNS
Celtic manager Neil Lennon watched his side lose 2-0 to Rangers. Picture: SNS

The hosts were comfortably beaten by Steven Gerrard’s side with Connor Goldson grabbing a goal in each half for the visitors.

Celtic were disrupted in their preparations for the match with Nir Bitton, Hatem Elhamed, Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard all absent due to Covid-19 related reasons. James Forrest and Christopher Jullien also missed out through injury along with long-term absentee Michael Johnston.

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Neither Leigh Griffiths nor Albian Ajeti was deemed fit enough to start by the Celtic boss, who went with an ineffective front two of Mohamed Elyounoussi and Patryk Klimala.

When asked if he had any concerns about the attacking performance on Sky Sports, Lennon said: “We’ve got Ajeti not fully fit, Griffiths not fully fit, three mainline strikers missing today to start with. But I thought we had some good chances in the first half to score. Rangers defended their box pretty well today and that was the difference in the psychology of the game in terms of the goals.

“We lost two poor goals from our point of view. One from a set play and the other from the second phase of a set play. We missed a great chance to equalise. Goals change games.

“We were really lacking in sharpness today. We didn’t get the impact from the guys off the bench that we’d hoped, but that will come. We have to go away, look at the performance and find a way to be better.”

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