Nir Bitton

Who'd have thought Rodgers knows better than the SMSM and moon howlers on the Internet?

 

Brendan is a fantastic guy, this is how you defend a player. No inconclusive, ambiguous *, you back him all the way and that's it.

And he is right for the most. There were few alternatives available and the guy gave his best. But hope we won't ever need him playing CB again, he is a central midfielder and thats visible

 

Haters are gonna choke on that article ...

 

I * love Brendan Rogers.....
That is all!

 

Great statement.

 

Great stuff from BR. Now get that swine Lawell told to open his wallet and buy a CB so Bitton doesn't get out in that position again.

 

The children (or monkeys) who draft Club 1872 'statements' could learn a thing or two from that.
Simple, articulate, point driven excellence.

We have a good manager.

 

Great words from Brendan in terms of man-management, but Bitton does deserve criticism for his part in several goals on Tuesday night. Just because he's out of position doesn't mean he should be void of criticism, especially when the manager states that he can play there comfortably.

 

Rodgers mounted an impassioned defence of Nir Bitton, following criticism of the Israeli midfielder’s performance against Astana in the second leg of Celtic’s Champions League play-off tie with the Kazakh title holders on Tuesday. The Parkhead side suffered a shock 4-3 defeat away from home but went through 8-4 on aggregate.

Celtic fans, however, posted scathing messages on social media condemning Bitton’s lacklustre display, although others, such as fellow midfielder Scott Brown and goalkeeper Craig Gordon, were also targets for severe criticism.

Bitton’s six appearances of the season have all been in central defence, where Celtic have been short of cover after injuries to Deryck Boyata, Erik Sviatchenko – who could move to FC Copenhagen before the end of the transfer window – and Jozo Simunovic.

Simunovic could return for the Premiership visit of St Johnstone and, if so, could be paired again with Bitton.

“Jozo hasn’t trained much in the last eight days and we’ll see how his leg reacts to the session today but the one player I want to mention is Bitton,” said Rodgers.

“The stuff that has been said about him has been absolutely incredible. I have seen people talk about what we should have had and blah, blah, blah, forgetting that we had three of our main central defenders injured. I do not have magic in a wand to just spring up a centre-half.

“We didn’t have people talk about too many solutions. We had to defend over the course of the group stages with the football. Our defending was done with the ball.

“We had to keep long periods of possession and in order to do that we played Bitton at the back. I hear and I read and I see the guy getting absolutely killed which I simply find unbelievable. It is a midfielder playing at the back. People are talking about a £30 million risk – we might not be here for £30 million if it wasn’t for him.

“No one talked about how he stepped in and made the pass to Leigh Griffiths for a goal. Naturally he is going to be out of position.

“After last weekend’s game against Kilmarnock he was in a [surgical] boot for two days. He travelled with a boot and then took it off just before he went into the training session the night before the game.

“He was suffering. His leg was sore, but he put himself out there for the team and he went in and did the best he possibly could in that situation and over the course of the qualification. He is still in pain, still sore but this is a guy who shows the spirit of the team and so I feel the need to defend him.

 

Aye cause we're only saying this because he's in defence. An overwhelming majority of our support weren't wanting him punted for his * performances for too long in his NATURAL POSITION were they

Yeah ok Brendan. Let's pin point a last minute assist when the tie was completely match set and done and Astana had given up. What about his job filling in at the back out there all game?

What utter garbage..

 

Imagine how proud Bitton must feel after Brendans comments, cheers to both - Nir for beeing ready and giving his best afterhe had a knock and Rodgers for backing his player up.

 

Thought he was decent today. Kinda stood and stared at one right at the end when the ball was on our six yard line. In the main we've got away with having only one or no centre backs

 

Seen an article saying fans were slaughtering him for today. I thought he did alright and can't remember anything terrible from him. I was the watching the GAA game at the same time mind, so could have missed it...

 

So rotten

 

Please make that the last

 

Can't remember him doing much wrong today.

 

Second it I was giving him benefit of dought and thought he should have been given a chance he’s had far to many ajer should have been playing today

 

Agree . In saying that we need to get something sorted about the centre backs pronto. Doubt Boyata will be back for PSG, Erik is crocked or away, the South African appears to be * too

 

Definitely.