Martin O’Neill isn’t a stickler for tactics or working on set-pieces, according to Neil Lennon.
The former midfielder worked under the Republic of Ireland manager for nine years, experiencing great success with Leicester City and Celtic, and can offer unrivalled insight into O’Neill’s methods.
Lennon revealed on Newstalk that his former manager doesn’t spend time working on set-pieces in training, seemingly viewing it as a waste of time. When he asked O’Neill why this was the case, Lennon met with a pretty blunt, but amusing, response.
“We never practised a corner, I worked with Martin O’Neill for 10 years, never practised a corner at Leicester City or Celtic,” Lennon said on Wednesday night.
“(But) If you go back over all his games, the amount of goals we scored from corners and free-kicks is unbelievable.”
“We’re going to Old Trafford one day, I said ‘Gaffer, why do we not practise fucking corners and free-kicks?’ He said: ‘Lenny, you take corners don’t you?’ I said ‘Yeah’. He said ‘we may get one corner at Old Trafford, and knowing you, you’ll fuck it up!'”
Lennon also offered insight into O’Neill’s match preparation, which, unsurprisingly, was also hands off. The former Celtic and Bolton Wanderers manager told a story about Leicester’s first game in the Premier League under O’Neill, and how the Derryman had the utmost trust in his players.
“1996/97 season we’re going to Sunderland, we’re all really nervous, we’re confident but we’re nervous because we’ve never really stepped into the Premier League. We travel up on the Friday, no conversation, no tactics, fuck all, as is Martin’s want”.
“He reads out the team, 3-5-2 (formation), get on with it. He goes: ‘Lads, I trust you. Trust me, just get out there and do it.’ We drew nil-nil, no tactics.”
