Neil Lennon has claimed most of Celtic’s problems against Borussia Dortmund stemmed from being "too nice". 

The Scottish Premiership giants suffered a humiliating 7-1 UEFA Champions League loss at the hands of Nuri Sahin's German hosts. 

Celtic conceded two first half penalties among several individual and collective mistakes being ruthlessly punished throughout the 90 minutes. 

A lot of that in their former manager's mind was down to showing the Bundesliga side more respect than they perhaps deserved which actually allowed them to be brutally exposed.

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"I didn't expect them to win," Lennon told TNT Sports. "I expected them to give a good account of themselves given the form they were in.

"They let the game get away from them. They were passive, far too passive with passing, didn't do the dirty business of the game well enough, weren't physical enough, too nice and they didn't turn Dortmund at all.

"They kept playing the same way. The results were the same - goal against, goal against, goal against. Eventually, when the game got to 3-1 I am expecting someone to get grip of the team and say 'ok, let's have 5-10 minutes in their half, let's get Maeda into it, let's turn them, let's get a corner or a throw' - there was none of that.

"They kept playing the same way - passes into dangerous areas and they kept getting picked off. Dortmund are an outstanding team but they have their flaws - particularly down the right hand side, but Celtic played right into their hands constantly.

"They have got to learn quickly. Celtic were exposed tonight. They have got to say 'we can't do this away from home against top teams, we have to find another way of playing at times.'"

Brendan Rodgers has come under scrutiny for his tactics, and Lennon was asked how much responsibility should be placed on the current boss, who still has Celtic unbeaten domestically this season. 

"You can't keep blaming the manager," he said. "Celtic have got a top manager in Brendan Rodgers. Yes, he wants his team to play football.

"He said before the game they would suffer at times, and they were suffering. What you do when you are suffering is you take the heat off you can get your wide men into the game and use the pace that Kuhn and Maeda have; didn't use that anywhere near enough. In the end it was little tippy-tappy passes through the midfield."