Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

Iwata has saved him.

 

The 3 goals came in the 51st 94th and 96th minutes.
I know VAR has extended game time, but I'm fairly certain they were all in the second half.

 

Rumours it’s achillies injury.

 

Sorry mate didn't read that correctly. I thought you were talking about the Dundee game

 

I know, but I felt like being a *.

 

Got that great win and has * off to the Man Utd job

 

We're gonna win the league and she is a good girl

 

Good Bhoy!!

 

He was on media duty today

So nothing major

 

She's a * boot, but I'd do her. Since the hair went and the beer belly arrived, I've has to reduce my standards.

 

When’s the international break?

 

Brendan was late as he was making sure lawwell jnr cleared his desk!

 

It seems like Celtic fans have been waiting all season for the fun to begin. For the football they so enjoyed immediately after Brendan Rodgers took over their team the first time around to make itself known in more than just fleeting glimpses.

They may not have thought that it would manifest itself as the season entered what Sir Alex Ferguson may call ‘squeaky * time’, but perhaps it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. After all, as the Celtic manager stresses, these are the moments when he feels he comes into his own. And when, as he puts it, he expects Celtic’s football to ‘smile’.

For all manner of reasons, this season has been one with few reasons to smile for the normally irrepressible Rodgers, but the emphatic 7-1 win over Dundee on Wednesday night felt like a significant moment, with both supporters and team pulling in the same direction for perhaps the first time this season



Rodgers certainly revelled in that synergy returning, and you got the sense when he was speaking ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Tynecastle that he is ready for what lies ahead. More than that, that he is actually looking forward to what is sure to be a nerve-shredding final stretch in the title race for fans on both sides of Glasgow.

"When you arrive at 10 games to go, that's when the fun begins, that's when you are into the business side,” Rodgers said.

“That's what I am really looking forward to.

“[Mentality], it’s everything. This is the serious part of the season. People will always try to dramatise it from a long way out, and the finish line is still quite a way away, but this is the real exciting bit where every single point matters.

“But like I say, there’s still a long way to go, 10 games to go, but it’s such a brilliant challenge and I’m looking forward to it.

“I have always felt our biggest enemy this season is ourselves. If we perform to the level that we can do on a consistent basis, we are a very good team.

“It's that consistency now of taking that performance into our next game.”

As well as a feeling that his team are coming on strong at just the right moment to make a final push for the title, Rodgers has felt something click inside of him too as he stares down the 10 games that stand between his side and the retention of their Premiership crown.

“Totally,” he said.

“It feels different. You know it’s game on, and you need to bring it on now.

“That is what the message was before the game the other night [against Dundee], you are now in a period where you just cannot be in you comfort zone.

“Now, you should never be. Naturally, you can be as a player, for whatever reason. But from now on in…

“I say comfort zone because you have to have physicality. If you are in your comfort zone in life then you are normally not being physical, you are not doing the work.

“You are in a period now where you have to be on it, you have to be there, and I think we saw the example of that the other night.

“From the off, the aggression, the speed, the touch, everything. When our game is like that then our football smiles, and that is what we want to see now for the rest of the season.

“It’s been a challenging season up to now for so, so many reasons, but we are there. We are still there, and we’ve got two big targets to play for, and it is still all within our grasp. So, we’ll be ready.”

During the various ups and downs of the campaign to date, there have been times when supporters have questioned whether certain players are really up to the level required to represent Celtic, both in terms of their mentality and their football ability.

Rodgers though has challenged his men to show everyone that not only can they handle the pressure that is yet to come in the weeks and months ahead, but their ability to thrive under it is exactly why they were brought to the club in the first place.

And if they can’t, or they retreat into their shells, then Celtic isn’t the place for them.

“I think it’s one where, especially with experience, you know that is what it brings,” he said.


If you don’t relish pressure then you can never be in this position as a manager or a player at a club like this here.

“If you want a holiday then go to a club where you can win once or twice in a month and maybe draw or lose two in a month. This isn’t the club to be at.

“This is what this club is about, it is about pressure, it is about dealing with pressure, and responding to it.”

 

Does anyone else feel like his mask slipped a bit and we’ve got a more authentic Rodgers at the moment, or am I getting suckered into the character he’s putting on just now?


I think the former to be fair, he’s slipped a bit of control and had a bit of anger and passion spill out. And the teams also playing like that since. Less controlled Rodgers, less controlled football, gees it

 

Nope. Biggest complaint for me is he's done * all from a great position and that's not something that gets corrected easily. Teams been shapeless, he's been hopeless, football been awful and it's all been pretty *.

Not sure how big that mask is but that would be a lot of slipping.

He's really poorly managed us, in every way. Sure it's getting better and we should still win the league but him suddenly taking a bit of an interest, whilst ok, isn't that impressive for me. Hopefully him and the team get better but not seen anything so far that makes me want him not gone in the summer.

 

Think since half time at Motherwell we’ve been direct, different shape, tenacious, bold and working like *. Like we’re * off with how we have played all year, and that’s how he’s came across to me lately.

Saying that, Taylor said a Trademark Rodgers moment, he stood calm and had a rousing speech halftime Motherwell.

Which is peak Rodgers Moment. It was probably in Spanish.

Saying that, its also came about when the background staff have had two guys go whos let him down, one of them being the son of the man he’s clashed with previously at us in public, and is rumoured that they don’t get on. So he’s won a battle in the background there

 

That's all good to hear. Encouraging even. Still been a car crash season for no apparent reason. Rodgers turning up now is good, but it's not ok he didn't do it 8 months ago. In what world is that acceptable?

 

The one that we’re at the business end of a title fight and we’ve looked to be at the start of finally getting a grip.

Rodgers hasn’t been good enough for me, I agree, but I also think there’s been mitigating circumstances, bad luck and he has been hung out to dry with no help.

January is unforgiveable, and the news out today of guys being punted, not just randoms * Lawwell’s son. That gives me hope that Rodgers lives in a world it’s not acceptable. So we put a pin in it till the leagues done. We drew a line halftime at Fir Park, and came out moving forward. There’s been a real change, and not just because we scudded Dundee. The attitude the style of play, tactics, the workrate, movement and the manager and certain players have shown an edge to them. We can look at what has been right and wrong and what we need to do when business is done mate. It’s Rodgers here, and that will not change unless he walks. There is zero chance we pay him £9m to sack him. We’ve shown extensively this year how willing we are to part with any money, never mind a fee that matches our record fee for a player when we bought Eddie