Alan Hutton has been speaking to Football Insider about Celtic’s exit from the Europa League.
The former Tottenham full-back went into detail on Neil Lennon’s decision making and tactics for the crucial Round of 32 tie against Danish giants Copenhagen, and had some words of criticism for the Hoops boss.
Hutton – who won exactly 50 caps for Scotland – expressed his bafflement at the former Bolton manager’s decision to drop Leigh Griffiths for the pivotal clash at Celtic Park, and also relayed his confusion as to why Lennon decided to change his 3-5-2 formation.
What did he say?
Hutton told Football Insider: “I have to admit I thought it was a strange one.
“I understand why he did it, he’s trying to be a bit more safe but when he looks back at it he probably wishes he had stuck to his normal formation.
“It was very unlike them – defensively they’ve been solid throughout the campaign. I found it strange that he switched to the four, they played so well with three at the back and two up front, to switch to the four, I’m not too sure why.”
Hutton has a point
After the first leg ended 1-1, the Hoops had the upper hand on away goals – another goal at Celtic Park would’ve left Copenhagen needing two clear goals to progress.
As Hutton alludes to, Lennon switched from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1 against the Danish outfit, despite both Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths getting on the scoresheet against Kilmarnock in the game before the knockout tie.
In the Round of 32 match-up, Celtic had 15 shots to Copenhagen’s seven, and also had 61.8% of the ball – their inability to use that dominance effectively came back to bite them as two goals in the last five minutes from the Danish side helped them progress in nightmarish fashion for the Bhoys.
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Leaving his two in-form strikers together surely would’ve given Celtic more of a threat to put their dominance to better use, and Lennon’s tactics can deservedly be questioned after things went array.
In other news, this pundit has hailed a Celtic ace who has only started 16 games this season…
