Brendan Rodgers took the time to give his thoughts on our 2-0 victory over Livingston on Saturday afternoon and admitted it was pleasing to get back to winning ways in the Scottish Premiership. The Bhoys boss has had to sit and watch from the sidelines of late as his team dropped points on consecutive game days against Killie and Hearts which has put the pressure on in this year’s title race.
On both occasions Celtic were just far too passive and looked as if they weren’t up for the battle that had to take place on the pitch before they could implement their own style and gameplan. It was a tough watch for the supporters too, who made their feelings clear to the Celtic heirarchy in a tempestuous atmosphere in the dying embers of our defeat to the Edinburgh side at Celtic Park last weekend. It was not nice nor pleasant to witness and one hopes we can correct the egregious summer transfer window of errors in January.
Firstly though, the Hoops will have to dispatch of Dundee away from home on Boxing Day, before awaiting the visit of our fierce rivals and main contender for the League Crown. Getting back to winning and keeping a clean sheet was imperative for the Irishman and he can now try and build some momentum again before the winter break after 2 January. On the match and result which Celtic dominated, Rodgers said: “We created lots of chances but I don’t think the players got the goals they deserved.
“We started the game very well in the first 20 minutes and we had some misses. We just needed to keep that perseverance and in the second-half we came out and got the goal from Kyogo which settled things down. It’s a really good win in a difficult week for the players. When you lose two games as a Celtic player and manager it can be tough, but you have the opportunity to bounce back and the players did that.”
“You can’t be comfortable in any game and you need to impose your style and the players did that. The players were very hungry today and they played with that bit of anger which brings up the intensity. Everything was good about the game and anything that came forward the defenders were strong in winning the first ball.Our only complaint was that we didn’t score the goals we could have done but all around it was a good win for us.”
The man who previously won two Trebles back-to-back in Glasgow’s East End was full of praise Kyogo Furuhashi who has been on a go up drought of late. He added: “It’s about the team but, of course, a striker wants to get goals. I think he’s only three short of where he was last season but he will feel he could and should have scored more goals. That was an important goal for us and as a striker, he stayed onside very cleverly and he got an important touch. With Scales, we did some work on set-pieces as, for and against, I felt we could be much better and it was a great ball and run.”
Rodgers acknowledged that this time of year can be really taxing for the players but has insisted that they still failed to maintain the levels we’ve all come to expect and demand from our Celtic team. Previewing the trip to the City of Discovery, he replied: “December is a real grind of a month with lots of games and recovery but the expectation is to get results and we fell short of that. Today, we were much more like ourselves with that determination and they get the results. They can have a quiet Christmas with the family and we are back in on Christmas Day to prepare for Dundee as we look to get the points up there.”
Paul Gillespie
