Brendan Fraudgers!

Aha.

 

No mention of Character from Brendan

 

CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers has praised his side’s mentality after they came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 in their opening pre-season match.
The Scottish champions kicked-off their run of games in Slovenia Tonight (Thursday) at the Arena Petrol against NK Celje and went a goal behind shortly before the half-hour mark when the home team’s captain, Danijel Miskic, converted with a first-time shot from a low corner.
The Celje skipper then made it 2-0 with a sublime free-kick after the break but after shuffling the pack entirely at half-time, Celtic eventually found the net 10 minutes into the second-half through Nadir Ciftci.
The Hoops striker did well to spark the fight back with his well-placed header from Stuart Armstrong’s cross before an exquisite piece of skill and an equally impressive finish from Tom Rogic drew the Celts level.
As the clock ticked down the Bhoys remained in the ascendancy but Celje held on for the draw and afterwards the Celtic manager praised his team’s resilience for battling back into the game.
“It was an excellent work out for us,” said the Celtic boss after taking charge of his team in match action for the first time. “The overall agenda of the game was to develop our fitness, and there certainly was that, so I’m very pleased.
“In the second-half the game was much quicker but we’re only just over a week into pre-season and normally the games don’t come so early but I was very pleased with the overall attitude.
“Even though it’s only a friendly and the result isn’t the most important, when you’re 2-0 down it’s still good to show that mentality to come back.”
The match was the first opportunity for the manager to truly put his players under the microscope and he took full advantage, fielding two separate teams in each half.
The side which started the game more closely resembled last season’s league title-winning squad but it was in the second-half that the Bhoys prevailed and worked their way back into the game with a young defence and Ciftci leading the attack.
The Turkish striker spent a year on loan in his homeland but made a positive impact on his return to action for Celtic and the manager praised him for his overall play.
“I’ve only joined the club and this is only my second week with the players so a lot of them I haven’t seen play before,” he explained. “I know a lot of the players and have seen some videos but until you get them under your eye first hand and see them in a game situation then you can judge better then.
“It was a good game for our fitness, they were a good side, bright, lively on the ball, but I thought in the second-half we were excellent.
“I thought he (Ciftci) was excellent. I thought he held the ball up really well, he pressed the ball and we ask our strikers to have that ability to press the game and the goalkeeper and I thought he was very good.
“His hold up play was excellent, he brought others in and obviously it was good positioning to score his goal so I thought he was very good."

 

He's replaced that word with personality here I've noticed. Obviously realised how often he said it at Liverpool which got picked up on a lot down there.

 

post match interview from Brendan
http://www.celticfc.tv/freeview

 

Great to see how he interacts with the fans

Paul the tim
Brendan Rodgers lovely guy got all the team to come over to the fans and shook every fans hand who was there tonight.

 

Before you start you never included the quote at the top :icon_mrgreen:

 

the first thing Brendan said I your famous Paul

 

I'm not starting anything :smiley-laughing002:

 

https://www.sundaypost.com/sport/fo...s-best-team-says-celtic-boss-brendan-rodgers/


Good wee read that

 

Aye I like his attention to the small details and their importance to the team understanding his vision and their role in it.

He must be great to work/play for. Saying the players are enjoying the pressing and passing in training sounds promising.

I love this line: “You then see the magic begin and, over time, it evolves in front of you."

Can't wait.

Thanks for the read Gav

 

I don't think this has been posted. Nice wee article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36670457 Talking about Brendan being linked with the England job.

and

Aye, he can stay

 

Ram your engerland job right up your * poo chute in other words.

 

BRENDAN Rodgers believes Celtic’s display yesterday (Sunday) against Sturm Graz was evidence of the team’s positive progress in the early part of pre-season.
Despite the Austrian side’s advantage in match fitness, the Hoops sealed 1-0 victory thanks to Ryan Christie’s goal 10 minutes before half-time.
It gave the manager his first win in the Celtic dugout, with the Scottish champions drawing their opening pre-season campaign with a 2-2 draw against NK Celje three days previously.
Speaking exclusively to Celtic TV, the Hoops boss said: “I felt it was a great exercise for us. This was Sturm Graz’s sixth and final game of pre-season before they start the league, and for us playing our second game, I felt we were very good.
“Most of the objectives were achieved from the game in terms of our fitness and football. The cohesion within the team is different at the moment, because I am picking different teams, but the first-half was very good – we had good speed in the game, scored the goal and could have had two or three more and didn’t concede.
“The second-half was a little bit more broken, but there was still a good mentality in the players and it was another step up in their fitness levels.
“We set some targets before the game and for me the players achieved them all,” he continued. “We are only a week-and-a-half in and I was really pleased with the first half and that pressing element, that hunger to get the ball back was good.
“We have worked on getting the ball back within four passes when the opponent scores or we score, and we did that and should have been 2-0 up straight away. So there are many pleasing aspects and the team, cohesively, is coming together day by day.
“It’s been great out here. We have a good chance to work together on the field and to reinforce our principles off the field so I’m really happy with how it’s going.”
The Irishman was also pleased at the build-up play for Christie’s winning goal, with Scott Allan collecting a pass in the box before finding Christie, who lashed the ball home.
“It was an excellent team goal,” said the manager. “Scotty got in, and Nadir was making excellent runs throughout the game, and we say to the opposite wingers that if you can get between the posts when the ball is in the box then you will get a chance to score.
“Their keeper made an initial good save but Ryan was on hand at the back post. Sometimes you see them missed but he slotted it in very well. We deserved that.”
Scott Brown also made his long-awaited return from injury when he came on as a second-half substitute, which was another pleasing outcome for Brendan Rodgers.
“He’s obviously away off in terms of his fitness but he’s very determined and he’s a wonderful captain,” he said. "He’s a good guy to have around and he’s worked very hard so it was just about introducing him back into it.”
New Bhoy Moussa Dembele warmed up with the rest of the squad but didn’t feature in the match in Graz, but Celtic supporters should get a first glimpse of the striker in Wednesday’s friendly encounter with Olimpija Ljubljana.
“He will feature on Wednesday night,” said the manager. “He’s only just with us and you need to give them seven to 10 days before you get them on the field or else you have a high risk of injury so he’s a guy that will come in and play some part on Wednesday.”

 

I'm just panicking but anyone else worried about the lack of transfer activity? Putting a lot of faith in guys from last year to navigate through early rounds of Europe. Even anyone coming now doesn't have long to gel with the team.

How much is there to spend? I originally expected around 10-15m (including money coming in). I can't see us spending close to this if we are after the type of guys we have been linked with. I think even Ronny had been more active in the transfer market lol.

As I said I'm probably panicking but there is a real chance of CL football with the right signing and give them chance to bed in with the team