Lennon: There has to be a culture change at Celtic

Celtic boss Neil Lennon has reacted to his side’s 4-1 defeat to Sparta Prague by stating that there has to be “a culture change” at the club.

The Scottish champions sit at the bottom of their Europa League group after the comprehensive defeat to the Czech side, and have now lost three consecutive home games.

Lennon said that this side’s performance was “unacceptable” and that there would have to be changes made as a consequence.

“There needs to be a culture change within the club,” the manager said. “I need to look at the culture, get them more hungry, get them back to basics.

“All those things Sparta did. We have to be far more aggressive in our play. As the manager I have to accept responsibility but the players have to look at themselves too.”

The Northern Irishman put the performance down to “an accumulation of things catching up” and called on his players to show more humility.

Having lost the group opener at home to Milan before drawing with Lille in France on match day two, Celtic have just a point to show for their efforts after playing half their group games.

“The group is probably gone,” Lennon admitted. “We need to get some respect back with our next performance.

“I’ve been here a long time and that’s a very poor performance from a Celtic team.”

Celtic’s performance was marked by defensive lapses and Lennon, who said that turning around the form wasn’t his biggest challenge in his time at the club, was perplexed by the showing.

“It was poor,” he said. “We started the game ok and then got really ragged with the ball.

“I keep saying if we don’t defend set pieces properly we’ll get punished.

“There was a lack of hunger tonight and I don’t know where it’s come from because we’ve put in a really good performance on Sunday. I’ve defended the players up until now but that was unacceptable tonight.”