MICHAEL STEWART appeared to unleash an obituary for Celtic’s 3-5-2 formation on Sunday after he watched the bhoys win 2-0 at Hampden.

Stewart believes a lot of Celtic’s woes comes from the formation which sacrifices an attacking-minded player for a defender. The pundit believes Celtic don’t need to do that domestically and the reason it worked so well last season was that they weren’t playing the best opposition in the league run-in.

Talking about Celtic’s performances before their week of poor results, Stewart conceded it was bound to happen as Celtic weren’t playing well in the 3-5-2 against so called lesser sides.

Seeing the bhoys back in a 4-3-3 and making things happen backs up his argument.

Speaking to the live BT Sports cameras post-match, the former footballer went on an impassioned rant about the 3-5-2.

“When you are thinking about the shape you can’t ignore that you’re basically substituting a forward thinking player for an extra defender and in the grand scheme of things Celtic don’t need to do that. Especially when they have a better shape.

“It’s not a case of ‘oh well, we are going to be a bit more fragile defensively’.

“When they have got that better shape they are dominating the ball and territory a lot more, which is the best way to defend the game because you are higher up the park, you are controlling the ball and you’re frustrating your opponents.

“When they play three at the back they allow teams to come forward a lot more and when they came into this run of games I think they were kidding themselves on a little bit to think that they were coming in with some good form. They weren’t really.

“Rory (Hamilton) was talking in commentary saying they had hit a bad run of form at the worst possible time.

“It was because they were playing against better teams. They weren’t playing particularly well before that either.” 

Quotes transcribed by RecordSport.

Neil Lennon and the recruitment team sat this summer and planned for players who could fit the 3-5-2 formation, that’s why we were chasing strikers and defenders. Duffy and Ajeti both players considered to come in and be the one extra in defence and the striker next to Eddy.

As it turns out, going back to the 4-3-3 brings Rogic back into play which so far has reaped rewards, Moi is in his best position and Eddy works well with both him and Christie. The 4-3-3 could be back to stay but Lennon showed signs he’s not giving up on the 3-5-2 just yet, changing to the formation late on against Aberdeen.

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