Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

If it has the desired effect, then I'll keep talking tripe.

It certainly had the desired effect tonight. Reverse psychology works you know.

 

Brendan Rodgers reckons his Honda Civic blast jolted Celtic into life - and got them revving like a Range Rover



Celtic jumpstarted their Europa Leaguecampaign by producing a stunning second-half fightback as quick-fire goals from Liam Scales and Ben Nygren secured a priceless 2-1 win over Sturm Graz.


Rodger’s took flak for his remarks after Sunday’s shock defeat at Dens Park but hopes his comeback heroes will finally begin to hit top gear.



He said: “Sometimes, like at the weekend, you have to be harsh to be clear. And then you hope that you get that reaction, that these players know that I'm with them always.





I spend my life dedicated to making this team better, making the individuals better, helping the club progress. And at the weekend, it wasn't not good enough.

"So tonight, we weren't quite the Ferrari - a Range Rover Sport, I would have thought. Hopefully, we have no more Morris Minors in the performance - not that they're a bad car. It's a fantastic car.





We showed the level with determination tonight. And that's what I expect to see going forward.”

Rodgers was over the moon with the response of his troops who have come in for heavy criticism this season.

The gaffer waxed lyrical over Arne Engels as the £11million midfielder ran the show in a rare start.




And he was relieved to see Swedish playmaker Nygren finally deliver the goods after wasting a flurry of chances.

He beamed: “I said before the game to the players that we really have to show leadership now and leadership qualities.

“In my experience with players, when those types of players are under pressure, they progress.




You can see that from the weekend, coming into this game, the pressure. But the progress in the team was so good individually and collectively.

“Of course, whenever you have a setback, which we've had a number of, but in particular at the weekend, then those leaders show the motivation to go again.

“We've seen all of that tonight. It was a really, really pleasing performance.





I'm so happy for the likes of Benji because he had so many chances and he's playing out of position really.

"But he gets into the areas to get those opportunities and showed so much courage to keep going. Eventually, he gets his goal.

“Arne Engels I thought was outstanding in the game. Coming back in, he gave us that energy in that fight.


His set-piece quality really is world-class at the level and speed at which he delivers. Overall, it was really pleasing.”

However, Rodgers faces an injury crisis ahead of Sunday’s title crunch at Tynecastle as Kelechi Iheanacho, Alistair Johnston and Cameron Carter-Vickers all hobbled off.

Iheanacho was hooked just minutes after kick-off with a muscle issue, while Johnston cut a distraught figure after a recurrence of the hamstring problem that kept him sidelined since August.




Stopper Carter-Vickers then crumbled to the deck at full-time and was helped off the pitch by physio Tim Williamson.

And with Daizen Maeda facing a late fitness test, Celtic head to Gorgie this weekend with a depleted squad.

On Iheanacho and Johnston’s injuries, Rodgers said: “They didn’t look good. We'll see what that is, but it looks like hamstring which isn't great




In the second half, we wanted to take off Cameron, but we could only make one substitution in the second-half. Ideally, we would have taken him off, so we'll see what he's like when he comes in the morning.

“I'm not worried about that. I'm really only worried about how we played tonight.

“That's our focus. We'll see what it is in the morning. If they're not available, you've seen the level that young Colby came in and performed and grew into the game.




He was very good. Jonny came in and worked really, really hard. So, yes, we just have to accept if we have injuries.

“But tonight, we really had a good performance, which was very good."

 

He's such a gimp.

 

* is all this patter about cars.?

Is Brendan going a bit doolally.

 

Box office.

 

Rolls Royce Brendan

 

Good win and ,ultimately apart from finishing, a very good performance tonight for most of the last 60 mins or so

Now if we had put that exact same performance in and both attempts for the goals had been saved or went wide and we had lost 0-1 then there could have been no complaints as we know we look a bit light at cf (let's face it Kenny is gash).
But ultimately we created plenty from both set pieces and open play, which is all we can ask for at this point in time.

So its fairly safe now to say that the notion, that a handful of posters are continually perpetuating, that the players are simply not good enough, and thats that end of, can now be put to bed.

If this level of performance can be achieved, but hasn't until now it has been clearly a fault with the management. If it is maintained, then hats off. If not then it is clear where the problem lies.

 

Fair play tonight to Brendan, major uphill battle losing two players to injury, going a goal down but still came out on top. Massive win for him, if he can pull off another one on Sunday and the cup semi it'll be a monumental achievement.

 

Do you realise the hypocrisy in your own post? No doubt your broad dig applies to myself as I've said all along that recruitment and quality of player was our main issue and not the management. And you seem to agree with that after watching tonight. No one is suggesting we needed to spend £50M on players all over the pitch. Our problem areas are clearly right wing and striker. The fact that we played very well tonight, created loads of chances and only took 2 of them is proof of that. Had we simply replaced the players we've sold the squad would be in a good place. We need a striker and right winger as a matter of urgency in January. Should have had them over the summer. If we had a quality striker on the pitch we would have won by 5 or 6 tonight easily. Clearly our management and tactics worked well tonight and the changes worked after a shocking result on Sunday. Also looks like Brendan's comments gave a few players a kick up the *. Will see what it means for Sunday, a poor performance and a loss sets us back.

 

It means that inconsistency will happen. Our squad isn’t capable of putting in that level of performance every single game. The weaknesses in the team were there to see. We created enough but if we had the level of attacking options we should, that game would have been out of sight. In the end, we needed a centre half to pop up to haul us back level. Last night actually highlighted even more just how poor our attacking options actually are.

 

I thinks its less consistency of performance and more looking at how Sturm Graz lined up against us. They didnt come with a plan to really shut us down in the way the likes of a Kairat did or the usual SPL teams we face.

Its like Graz came here and decided to play their own game and hoped that would be good enough to match up against us.

They didnt really get tight to us or sit back in a compact defensive shape looking to funnel our play out wide and then close down our wide players. Our centre backs and McGregor had no problem at all taking the ball out of defence and finding men with forward passes.

We didnt really change anything in our approach ourselves. a couple of personnel switches but the same general approach. My fear is that when we go back to playing these more defensively organised SPL teams who know how we play that we will revert back to the same issues of struggling to get the ball moving out from the back and finding ways to break them down.

Hearts should provide a very good examination of this as you would expect Derek McKinnes to know exactly how we are going to set up and have a very specific plan to counter it. Hopefully we can at least take the confidence and morale booster from last night forward into the game and keep the more positive aspects of moving the ball forward at a quicker tempo.

 

To see if he can be just as effective on the right whilst also accommodating our big £5m summer signing.

 

You're going to have to point out what was actually hypocritical.

Last night was a good performance let down by finishing from our striker and rw. Admittedly I, mistakenly, omitted Nygren as he was just as hoaching in front of goal as Kenny.

Those two aside though we were fairly good all over the park with a bit of a patchwork side. There was an energy and application we haven't seen this season, there was a bravery on the ball and in passing that we have very rarely seen since January, chances were created playing some decent football.

The manager deserves credit for that last night, undeniable, but it was a performance that shows the squad is not completely bereft of quality as some would have us believe. It also shows that he deserves criticism for not getting that level of performance, or at least close to it, on a more regular basis. Not every game, that is of course unrealistic and inconsistency has to be expected, but this season we have been poor and lacklustre all over the pitch in all but maybe the last stages of the Motherwell game and the start of the second half of red star. We were much the same for the second half of last season with the odd exception.

Despite the failings of recruitment at cf and rw in the summer that game perfectly highlights the fact the manager has to carry some of the can for the insipid performance levels of the last 9 months in almost all players. Nothing hypocritical about that.

 

That's the thing, we created enough. We played some good football, we were brave in possession. All things we have been failing to do with any semblance of regularity for the best part of of a year. Everyone knows we have deficiencies at cf and rw but there is quality in the squad. Enough quality that we should be better than what we have been for a long time now. Last night highlighted that.

Inconsistency is to be expected, absolutely, but recent performances have gone beyond just Inconsistency. Rodgers gets credit for last night's performance but its his job to get that level more often. He has been failing at that, hopefully that's a corner turned.

 

I'll give him the next couple of games to see if hes learned anything from the overall performance last night.

 

The reality is he's not close to either. Last night was better but as others have said I'd attribute it as much to the quality and decisions/tactics of the opposing team rather than anything else at present.