Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

That McGeady interview talking about his mind games shows a different light on it. He’s had clement on strings and it’s been class to see

 

I actually didn't like this at the time but he's made true on his words..

Would've been some heavy egg on his face and slaughtering from us ams elsewhere but instead of buckling when it got tough, he actually came to life and relished it..

Fair play..

This one feels really good. At one point it did look like we were gonna throw it away but for weeks I've been confident we'd do it....even more so after they scored late on to grab a draw and celebrated like *. I knew that day we were better and had them before kick off and that draw was them clinging on to dear life....knowing full well we had the upper hand..

 

Had to convince a lot of people but he's turned it around

 

I was working during the game, so I was watching it already knowing the score. I tend to watch games differently in that kind of situation. I tried to ask myself how the game would look to a neutral. What I noticed is this:

1) In almost all areas of the pitch, we had the upper hand. CCV was imperious, our midfield 3 was wiping the floor with theirs, Kyogo was terrifying their CBs, Maeda was destroying Tavarnier and Forrest was getting the better of Barisic most of the time 9except for their goal).

2) There was 1 matchup where the Rangers player had the upper hand, namely Taylor against their RW.

3) There were 2 matchups that were tightly contested, with neither party able to dominate the other: AJ against Silva and Scales against Dessers.

4) The Rangers strategy seemed tailor-made to bypass the areas where we had the upper hand (i.e. most of the pitch!) and focus on the two contested areas and on the 1 area where they had the upper hand (indeed, their goal involved all 3 of these areas.

Overall, I was left with the impression that it was tight because we had a better team with better players and they had a clear strategy that was creating chances too.

 

I honestly hope he is backed come this summer. It’s absolutely vital he is backed or he will end up walking again.

I don’t want any projects this summer, not * one for the first team, have no issues signing players for the B team but we need first team ready players to walk into the side.

 

Pretty much described how we destroyed them tactically. They had one shot on target. Not really creating anything at all

 

While I do think some of the criticism he's received this year has been deserved he's done well.
The team obviously looked frustrated and lacking confidence for a long spell. The team must have felt like * when going 2 points behind. He's managed to keep the team confident or make them believe in themselves. He's put the fear into Clement too, who obviously struggles with the pressure and can't remain calm. Rodgers is pretty calm and doesn't throw players under the bus. I think you've got Clement fearing for his job.

 

You missed the fact that they tried to press us and for the first half largely we just knocked it past the attempted press and managed to free Hatate and McGregor at will to turn and exploit the massive hole in the middle of the park, as Lawerence had pressed high, Lundstrum had dropped deep and Diamonde chased shadows.

Or the overload on the right to create 3 v 2 or 4v3 where we constantly had a runner off the ball into the space between Davies and Barasic. Also dragged all their team over and we kept Maeda high and wide on our left and he had the run of the park out there when the switch was on.

We constantly were able to create space around the edge of their box to get uncontested shots off where we could have scored a good few goals from.

Lastly our front 3 combined well with Hatate to mean the lump to their big wingers was all they had on to get up the park as they couldn’t handle being pressed.

 

That’s over to the board.

 

Aye just watched the game back. Other than the goal, the huns offered * all beyond a Silva and McAusland chance. Rodgers ripped Clement a new * yesterday.

 

I liked peter grants take on it. "Celtic set up to win the game, rangers set up to stop celtic. That's the difference between the teams"

 

He was baldy baldy rattled....there fixed it!

 

I actually mentioned in an earlier post that they pressed us, except that I thought they got some joy out of it. I do acknowledge that the players found a way through it; but the fact that it took them a good 10-15 minutes to do so suggests to me that it was precisely that: the players who found a way through it, not Rodgers.

I still think we won that game because it was a total mismatch in terms of player quality, which the earlier games weren't, because yesterday was probably the first game all season (and certainly the first game since the early autumn) that we've been able to start our strongest 11.

 

Aye it was almost like the sending off helped them..

They were never in it really til they got that goal, they were utter pish and the amount of space and time we had 25 yards out from their goal in the middle of the park was frightening..

They can't handle us..

We just need better quality at the back as we concede from very little pressure against almost everyone..

Can see us being much much more dominant against them next season with a few key signings. Definitely pace and power required with some quality of course..

 

I think he had a shocker around February; but apart from that 1 period, I honestly think he's done about as well as could have been expected given the injuries and the last 3 windows.

I also think that a fair number of Celtic managers in my lifetime don't win this title with some of the teams we've had to play this season. Not only the rubbish ones like Brady, Barnes, Macari, Mowbray; but also a few decent managers I really liked, such as Ronny, Dr Jo and even Tommy. I imagine we'd have gone for another Ronny Deila type punt if DD hadn't decided to bring Rodgers back, so there's a fair chance he's actually saved this season by coming back.

He said he came back to make it up to us. For me, that's the debt repaid as of yesterday. He can leave in the summer with his head held high or he can stay and try to build a real legacy. I'll be interested to see what he decides to do.

 

Yeah agreed. We definitely need to tighten up at the back and the Scales/Taylor combo is an issue but hopefully in the summer we can fix that. We really should have been about 3 up long before the sending off. We played through them with ease were proper peppering their goal...just hitting them wide or over the bar. And Kyogo should have buried his chance.

Slightly on a tangent here but 2nd half was an eye opener in how pish Raskin is aswell btw. He's their version of Cammy Devlin.

 

Nah it was definitely Rodgers. And the key thing to it was Callum McGregor. Look at the freedom he gave him, he was playing much higher up the pitch driving forward a lot more and James Forrest’s ability to always be available for a pass, take the ball in and have ridiculous ball retention. We were drawing them into the press, beating it, and overloading them afterwards. It was excellent.

 

I'm probably just making a story up in my mind based on a few fragments TBF. As soon as I posted that, it occurred to me that a coach like Rodgers probably knows that (when everyone's fit) we have the best players in the league and probably gives them the freedom to find their own solutions for precisely that reason. I can imagine he might train them in the principles needed to do that rather than on how to beat specific patterns that the opposing coach may or may not decide to change.

I was just shocked at how we could be so utterly dominant in that first half and yet still give away almost (but not quite) as many chances as we created. All our chances had to be created with lovely bits of skill and intricate interplay too; while all they seemed to have to do is launch long balls to their wingers and hang crosses above Greg Taylor.

 

This is spot on. Lawwells return seen us revert back to the old ways of gambling on cheap punts and doing the bare minimum to get by. We seen it with signings and likely would have with manager too (Maresca) if not for Desmonds interference.

Would an inexperienced manager have won the league with 2ns division Koreans and duds from aussie league?

Rodgers experience eventually helped get us over the line and you make a good point about him repaying his debt. Ideally we go and scud them in the cup final and everyone is happy again. A good hun scudding is the only thing missing from this season, feel we've had couple of chances to do it too and not taking them.

Take care of that and then it's a clean slate for next season. The summer is going to be huge, bcoz we again find ourselves at a familiar crossroads, a talented, ambitious manager who wants to really push us on and do something special vs a fat * * of an accountant who's only priority is his and his cronies fat bonuses.

We've allowed him to win twice and drive away 2 fantastic managers. He can't be allowed to do it again

 

For me their press was totally dysfunctional from the first minute when we broke through them and got forest driving into the box at Barasic and Soutar was very lucky Butlands face dropped it being 1-0 inside a minute again.

We done it time and again. I actually felt that it took them about 25 minutes to even look like doing anything. The first chance they got was Johnston scuffing a clearance and Silva pounced on the loose ball after a challenge.

I would actually say the only reason they had a chance in the game wasn’t tactics it was two physical mismatches in Silva and Sterling vs our full backs. So individual mismatches which I know you highlighted, but I don’t think there was any Clement tactical nous to that.

I would say we had clear patterns of play to get Hatate, McGregor, O’Riley on the ball and create overloads particularly on our right. There was plenty of rehearsed runs underlapping, overlapping and one of Hatate or O’Riley drifting into the space it creates. Yes individual talent plays its part and our players are far better than their’s but we had that vs Aberdeen and Hibs back in February and didn’t look like a team well coached.

My take is our biggest problem is failure of individuals to finish off or play the final ball when we get the situations our style has created e.g. Idah three times second half, twice he has two easy pick outs fails to make them, has a finish in the 6 yard box fails to anticipate centre back missing a great cross from Ralston.

You have Hatate taking on a shot first half after a great press and turnover giving us 5 v 4, when if we used the ball quicker that shot could have been from the penalty spot. Again individual decision making.

Don’t get me wrong we are not as regimented as we were under Ange but I think that suits the likes of O’Riley who is an intelligent player and doesn’t suit a Taylor who is massively limited.

However, I have to agree to disagree that Rodgers got schooled by Clement, he has played him 3 times and realistically should have given him 3 doings if it hadn’t been for wasteful play and individual errors gifting them life lines. O’Riley tucks that penalty away or Maeda is just onside for his first offside goal that finishes at least 5-1.