Brendan Fraudgers!

Brendan Rodgers has insisted that Scotland have the players to get to major tournament – but need to get their coaching right.

The Celtic manager believes that Scotland has already produced players who are capable of taking the country to the next level, but the coaching from the grassroots all the way to senior level has to be right.

“It’s not the players that’s the problem,” said Rodgers. “You’ve got the players, the players are here. The boy Lewis Morgan at St Mirren - quick, dynamic, can press can run, can get at people. Stuart Armstrong here, boys that are quick and can play.

“So you’ve got the players, it’s how they are coached and how they are asked to play.

“It isn’t going to be snap your fingers and it is going to work. It could take a decade.

“That is what our education here is about. It is not about you being in the charge of the Under-13s and Under -14s then going into the pub afterwards and saying you beat a team 2-0. That is not what it is about. You might lose games, it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about the result, that comes later on. But get them in a way where they can play in a way without fear, play football.

“There comes an age where they need to understand winning. But, certainly at 6, 7, 8, 9 you don’t need that. It is about the player and the ball. It is about the player and his team-mate, the player and the team. Then as they get through to 13s, 14s it is about understanding about the game.”

And Rodgers has dismissed the notions that facilities aren’t there for Scottish clubs.

“I’ve been at Reading where we didn’t have great facilities, been through to world-class facilities at Chelsea, you go to their training ground and they have everything, same at Liverpool,” he said.

“I was at Swansea as a Premier League manager.

“So I get why you want the best facilities but that’s not what makes the players, it’s great if you’ve got them but they don’t have them in South America, they don’t even have them in Belgium.

“So it’s about what you do inside it. It’s like in Barcelona, it’s what they do in it. It’s the environment and what they are creating inside it.

“Listen I don’t want to come up here and people say he’s only been here for 15 odd months but from a position looking in, you’ve got players. At the highest possible level you have to be able to play football.

“If someone tells you later in your career to smash it up the pitch you can always do that but you can’t have a player coming to you at 13, 14 and you’re trying to build the game and play in a certain way and someone says to you listen we can’t really build from the back because he’s not really comfortable with the ball, well then you’ve got a problem.

“That’s education, that’s coaching.”

Like punters up and down the country, the Celtic manager found himself shouting at the TV on Sunday night as Scotland’s play-off hopes were expunged by Slovenia.

However, while the failure to land the chance to take one of the runners-up spots for a play-off resulted in Gordon Strachan losing his job yesterday afternoon, Rodgers believes that now is the ideal chance for the country as a whole to attempt to radicalise the way in which football is coached.

Towards the end of last season Rodgers was irked as he turned up to an under-17 Cup game between Celtic and Rangers as he watched “the most talented players smashing it up the pitch” and he insisted that there has to be a culture shift in the way in which football is coached.

“Now is a great time to look at it, shine a torch on it,” he said. “How can we be better? Normally this is how you get great gains. You have to do the same even when you are successful. But certainly there is a great opportunity now to take the country forward.”

The Hoops boss has told Malky MacKay, the Scotland performance director, that he is always on the end of a phone should he wish any advice.

“I’d always help,” said Rodgers. “We speak, but it’s so busy.

“It’s one: have you got the players? Yes. Good players for me.

“It’s understanding what you are looking for at the right ages and the right times and then putting in place a method that allows you to exploit all of your great strengths.

“My initial reaction through it all was frustration.

“I was shouting at the TV. I want the Scotland boys to do well.

“They have made an incredible flip and it was frustrating.

“That second part of the competition was actually very, very good. I’m always one then to look at going forward and that’s why it’s so frustrating, because you’ve had 20 years of it. There is a genuine chance there because there is a group of players who can go on and qualify. There’s no question about that.

“Let’s take away all the negativity and frustration and say, ‘How do you move on from here?’

“And then build something over these next couple of years that’s going to allow you have a vibrant team that’s going to have a real go at doing it. You’ve shown in the second part of the campaign that you can do it. It comes around very quickly.”

Just as former Scotland manager Craig Levein is haunted by his 4-6-0 formation in a previous campaign, so Strachan’s tenure as the national manager will forever be framed by his genetics remarks in the immediate aftermath of a game that Scotland allowed to slip from their grasp.

“I know where Gordon was coming from,” said Rodgers. “I can understand that. At Swansea I had one player over 6ft 3ins and the rest were s6ft or below, but we were very good technically and tactically, very good in the game. You have to find a way but I can understand the frustration of Gordon at the end.

“Who are the best players in the world? Messi, Suarez, Hazard, Iniesta, Neymar, Verrati. Verrati’s 5ft 6ins but he’s not in conflict with the ball. He keeps it.

“If Scotland can find a systematic approach to work in, to play in, so that if there are players missing, the next ones can come in, if you have a profile and a clear identity – because that’s what it’s going to take, a collective effort.”

 

A massive problem Gordon Strachan had was the plain ignorance of totally overlooking players who deserved a start or even a call up. Overlooking players because they dont play in the premier league or Celtic, plenty players that played for other scottish top flight teams merited a chance above some of the dinosaurs that Strachan was playing.

EDIT: Sorry I realise this post should probably be in the national team post but it was just in response to the above post with BR talking about Scotland

 

A LIMITED number of VIP tickets for ‘An Evening with Brendan Rodgers’ at Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo are on sale now exclusively to Season Ticket holders.

The event which takes place on Friday, October 27 will celebrate the launch of the Celtic manager’s official autobiography – The Road to Paradise.

General sale tickets for the event are sold-out; however a limited number of VIP tickets are on sale now exclusively to Celtic Season Ticket holders (max four tickets per person), on a first-come, first-served basis.

Priced at £100 each, these VIP tickets promise a fantastic fan experience which includes:

• Access to a private bar for a pre-show drinks receptionwith canapés
• Premium seating within the SEC Armadillo
• A signed copy of the manager’s new official autobiography, ‘Brendan Rodgers: The Road to Paradise’

Hosted by broadcaster and NI Hospice Ambassador Eamonn Holmes, this intimate event will see Brendan Rodgers take centre stage to talk about his journey from a small village in the north-east of Ireland to becoming the treble-winning manager of Celtic Football Club.

At Brendan Rodgers’ request, Celtic Football Club has made a donation to both the Northern Ireland Hospice and Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) in relation to the publication of this book and a further donation will be made by the Club to each charity for every copy of the book sold.

Celtic FC Foundation, the charitable arm of the club, will also benefit from a donation.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Celtic’s Hospitality team:

Call: 0871 226 1888* (option 4)
Email: matchdayhospitality@celticfc.co.uk
Online: Click HERE to buy online now – a £1.50 booking fee per ticket applies to online sales only.

*Calls cost 13p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge.

http://www.celticfc.net/news/13375




https://mobile.twitter.com/celticfc/status/918880114695434241/video/1

 

If rodgers wants him then I want him

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https://mobile.twitter.com/celticfc/status/919191942973607937/video/1

 

BR: "In terms of our performance, we weren’t as fluent as I would have liked us to be."

BR: "In parts of the game we were creative but at other times we were too loose with our passing


BR: "I said to the players before the game, we're going into a run of fixtures now and champions do that little bit extra."


BR: "You have to step up, there are a lot of games that require a lot of concentration and lots of changes for us today."


BR: "I thought, bearing all of that in mind, to get the result, cleansheet and three points was a brilliant result for us."


BR on de Vries: "You see today why I have him in the team. Testament to how professional he is and how hard he's worked."


BR: "Towards the end when the ball was coming into the box he showed his agility and concentration to make the saves."

BR: "Overall I was really pleased with the result."


BRENDAN Rodgers praised his team’s strong mentality which saw Celtic take all three points in against Dundee in the Premiership. Olivier Ntcham’s second-half goal gave the Hoops a 1-0 win at Paradise today (Saturday) and extended Celtic’s unbeaten domestic run to 59 games.

Speaking after the game, the Celtic manager admitted that the fluency within the team was perhaps not what it usually is, given the number of changes to the starting XI, but he spoke highly of his players’ ability to get the job done against a stubborn Dundee side.

“There are a lot of games that require a lot of concentration and lots of changes for us today,” said Brendan Rodgers. “I thought, bearing all of that in mind, to get the result, keep the clean sheet and get the three points was an absolutely brilliant result for us.

“Today it was about getting the result. It was never going to be as cohesive as usual with so many people missing and very little time to work. What we have is incredible mentality. I said to the players before the game that we’re going into a run of fixtures now and champions do that little bit extra."

Cristian Gamboa and Dorus De Vries both made their first competitive appearances of the season, and the two players performed well in the game, earning praise from their manager.

“I thought Cristian was excellent today and you see in a game like today why I have Dorus in the team," the manager said. "It's testament to his professionalism and how hard he’s worked.

“It’s been around a year since he last played competitively. This was a nice game for him to come into. He didn’t have a great deal to do, but towards the end when the ball was coming into the box he showed his agility and concentration to make the saves.”

 

Massive three games coming up for BR and the Bhoys.. probably as tough as it's been in his time in charge..

Massive game in Munich, followed by a quick turn around to face Lenny's Hibs such a tough Cup Tie that one. And then away to Aberdeen on Wed for a top of the table clash.

Doesn't get tougher than that imo..

 

Anything in Munich would be a bonus but the two domestic games are must win.

 

Aye if we were to win in Munich I could forgive them if we didn't win the two proceeding..

 

JUST when Celtic think they have seen the worst Group B in the Champions League could throw at them, then comes along a certain Dutchman.

While Bayern Munich may not be the powerhouse they were two years ago, one key and consistent part of the danger they present lies in the feet – or to be more specific the left foot – of the man scampering down the right wing, Arjen Robben.

The Dutch winger gives the impression of having been around for ever yet he is still only 33 and, despite his mature features, there is still a spring in the step of the man Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers once knew well during their time at Chelsea together. He has retained most of the the agility that helped to propel him beyond even the most studious of defenders. It will be the task of Rodgers’ men at the back to keep him and a Bayern side with a point to prove quiet on Wednesday night when Celtic go to the Allianz Arena on Champions League duty. But while he will be hoping to heap more misery on the Dutchman who will not be in Russia next summer, there was nothing but glowing praise from one of his former coach.

“Arjen Robben I know very, very well,” Rodgers said. “Firstly as a player, what a player he was. I worked with him at Chelsea, he was an amazing player. And secondly as a man, he was a great man.

“As a player, people won’t know, but his last game for Chelsea was against Hampton and Richmond [in August 2007]. If Carlsberg did reserve teams I had the best reserve team in the world there. It was [during the transfer] window, we needed a game and as you can imagine [we] had a lot of players. There was just no-one to play against at the time. I said to Jose [Mourinho] the only teams I can get in are two part-time teams.

“I had [Carlo] Cudicini in goal, Juliano Belletti at right-back, who had won the Champions League with Barcelona. I had Alex at centre-half, and I had a young boy Jeffrey Bruma beside him. [Patrick] van Aanholt, John Obi Mikel. Scotty Sinclair on the left side, [Claudio] Pizarro and Arjen on the right. We won 7-0 and Arjen was the captain and scored. The next day he went to Real Madrid. So that tells you about the mentality of him, and the player he was; he was an unbelievable player.”

Away from the pitch, Rodgers has also witnessed Robben's humble and generous side despite his status as one of world football’s stars. He retells a tale about his time as a coach at Stamford Bridge when he took his young players to a prestigious youth tournament in Northern Ireland.

“The second story tells you about him as a person," says Rodgers. "I was taking the first ever Chelsea youth team over to the Milk Cup and it was at the end of the season,” he says. “It was in July, so he was a Premier League winner, and had gone off and was on his holidays. And I needed to take a couple of players with me over to Northern Ireland for the opening.

“It was a function that was on at the Waterfront in Belfast, The Odyssey. I needed to take two players, so I asked one, Mikael Forssell, he was a good guy, a great player.

“He had a terrible time with injury, but he was a big talent. Mikael said he would go. The other one was going to be a push, but I got on really well with him, and that was Arjen Robben. Now, this time Arjen was back home, it was off season, he was in Groningen, and I’m asking him to get to Heathrow for a nine o’clock flight to Belfast.

“So he got the train from Groningen right the way down to Schiphol, and then flew into Heathrow in time for us to be on a nine o’clock flight to Belfast. What an effort that is. * knows what time in the morning he would need to get up.”

It is a generous streak Rodgers has no intention of returning this week. Celtic go to Munich as massive outsiders – some bookies have the Scottish champions at 33/1 for a win. Yet, even confronted with the most arduous of tasks, there is hope.

Not only are Celtic going into the match on the back of an emphatic 3-0 win over Anderlecht, they go up against a Bundesliga side in turmoil. Jupp Heynckes has been brought in for the sacked Carlo Ancelotti who saw his team go down 3-0 to PSG, while they are without a win in three games across all competitions.

“He’s clearly someone who is well respected in the club,” said Rodgers of Heynckes. “He has a great history, not just there but around the world where he has coached and managed. I’ve never come across him but I’m looking forward to meeting him.

“Listen, I even hear people talking about us in for finishing second, so that shows you from where we were 16 months ago, how this group is improving. It's a really exciting challenge. I’m looking forward to going to the stadium; I’ve never been there and it looks an amazing stadium.

“And you look at some of the recent results, even when they’ve taken 2-0 leads they have been pegged back, so of course we need a lot of things to go for us in those games to get results, but this is the team that retained its right to fight and we are not put off easily. From the first game we then go away and get that result and actually our away form in Europe, including the qualifications apart from Astana away, has been very, very good.”

 

BRENDAN Rodgers has hit out at his Celtic team being forced to play a League Cup semi-final just three days after their crunch tie in Munich.

The Scottish champions play Bayern on Wednesday night in the Champions League before returning to Scotland in the early hours of Thursday morning.

That gives little time for Rodgers to prepare his team to face Neil Lennon's Hibernian at Hampden at 12.15pm on Saturday.

With both that game and the meeting of Rangers and Motherwell the following day being shown live on BT Sport, the Celtic manager believes common sense should have prevailed and his side's tie moved to the Sunday.

"We are certainly not helped by it," said Rodgers. "I believe it is TV. We are one of the clubs who has a high percentage of players away on international duty. After the international we came back and we played on the Friday on telly.

“This here, you only need to look at the numbers of games, the levels of games, the travel that the players are making… So I was very, very surprised. They could have been kinder to us but we have to get on with it.

“I was assuming, which was maybe a mistake of mine, that common sense would come into it and that the team who were playing in a high level game in Germany on the Wednesday night would play on the Sunday instead of an early kick-off on a Saturday.

“I am not sure who [is responsible]. I would assume it is telly but certainly we could have been helped. There is no doubt. I am sure Lenny [Hibs boss Neil Lennon] will be delighted because it can make a huge difference.”

 

And people say domestic football isn't exciting

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See his wifes ex has committed suicided

 

No doubt a Hun * was responsible for the fixture list. Anything to give the Orcs a helping hand. Wonder who the refs are for next weekend.

 

get it right before you spread such unscrupulous, appalling rumours, you fiend!

it was actually his WIFE'S EX!

 

That’s what I said ?

 

‘’

 

you know what you said.

you dolt.