When it's asked, "Can I just connect a panel to a battery?" the answer is almost always, No. It will work, but it will not do what you think it will.
If the cells are charged and not pulling current the panel voltage will rise and overcharge them.
If the cells are undercharged they will pull a load of current pulling the panel voltage down to the cell voltage resulting in less watts and less charging.
I don't think clamp or dropper diodes will work either. Panels are not linear, the voltage will vary a lot.
Take a look here. He has other videos on his channel where he demonstrates what happens if you try and do what you are intending. It doesn't work very well is the short of it. You can use a charge pump and PWM with an arduino (Check also Adam Welch videos where he shrinks it to an ATTiny chip)... or you can go full MPPT which is probably overkill for your use case.