A 2-2 draw at Hibernian on Saturday saw Celtic lose more ground on Rangers in the title race this season, something which further piled pressure on to Lennon.

 

Celtic are aiming to win an unprecedented tenth league title in a row, but are now eleven points behind league leaders Rangers albeit playing two games less than Steven Gerrard’s side.

 

 

Rough conceded that Lennon is now aware that to save his job, his Celtic side need to go on a good run of results, but the former Bhoy feels that for a team aiming to win the league, their manager cannot afford to look over his shoulder at his future constantly.

 

The former goalkeeper said on PLZ Soccer: “I think he knows that he needs to go on some kind of run and he has got to everybody behind him again.

 

 

“The last time it looked like he was going to lose his job and then he got a good result. I think that was in Europe and that sort of dampened everything.

 

“Every time there is a bad result it is going to raise its ugly head and that’s the thing you can’t do if you are going in challenging for the bigger picture.”

 

 

Rough stressed that Lennon is too vocal and open about his criticism of his players and their performances, and feels that while it worked when he was at Hibernian, it is clearly not having the same effect on his Celtic players.

 

He believes the Celtic manager’s criticism is not getting the kind of response he would have wanted from his squad and it is now having the opposite effect with the players feeling like not wanting to play for him.

 

“I think his biggest problem is, and that is not a criticism from me, Lenny has always been very vocal about his team and his players.

 

“If they are not playing well and he doesn’t think they are playing well, he lets them know, he lets the media know and he lets everybody know.

 

“It can work two ways.

 

“I think it worked at Hibs.

 

“I thought when he was at Hibs and he came out and slaughtered the team verbally to everybody, he had a dressing room full of players that reacted to the criticism and wanted to get better.

 

“But unfortunately this time the criticism he has thrown out is not good enough in that Celtic dressing room and they want to prove him wrong.

 

“I don’t think he has got people in there who want to react to criticism and there are people in the dressing room who are going in the opposite way and saying I don’t want to play for you or be here.”

 

Lennon will be looking for a response from his players at Sparta Prague on Thursday.