“I wouldn’t say that” – Celtic’s David Turnbull rejects criticism from Neil Lennon

Neil Lennon took most of stick this season when he was in charge and obviously he didn’t do well in his role, but it is a team effort and everyone at the club needs to take some responsibility for his departure.

One of the rare bright spots this season has been the emergence of David Turnbull, and it absolutely looks like he’s going to be a key player for years to come.

You did have to fear for him at Motherwell when he picked up a nasty injury and he struggled to get into the team at the start of this season, but he’s probably the player that most fans want the team to be built around just now.

The Daily Record reported on his recent comments about his rise at the club and feelings from this season, but one of the more interesting points came from an accusation from Neil Lennon.

They claim that Lennon alleged the squad had showed a lack of bravery this season and that’s why they were dropping so many points, but it’s not something that Turnbull accepts:

“I wouldn’t say that, no. Maybe one or two players switched off at the moment Neil was speaking about in the Ross County game but I would not say there is a lack of bravery.”

“It wasn’t a great result last weekend obviously. It did hurt a little. Looking forward, it just has to be one game at a time and we will hopefully do the business. “

The reason talking about bravery is so interesting is because there probably is some truth in that, but perhaps not in the typical sense.

We often think about bravery being about players putting their body on the line and getting in the face of opposing players, but there’s more to bravery than that when you play at an elite club.

Almost every game will present a scenario where you have fans demanding that you win, while the opposing team are going to get everyone behind the ball and make it as difficult as possible.

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That means it’s so easy for a player to keep taking the easy option by playing an easy pass to a teammate – it means you’ll have some strong passing stats and it might give an illusion that you’ve played well, but really you’ve not done anything to help the team.

Bravery at Celtic also means actually getting on the ball and trying to make something happen, and that’s exactly what Turnbull does bring to the team.

There are some players in the squad who could be accused of hiding or taking the easy option and hoping someone else will step up and drag the team to victory, but that can also be attributed to the tactical approach or playing style too.

Perhaps there is some truth in those bravery accusations from Lenny, but it’s fair to say that Turnbull isn’t one of the players who would fall into that category.