CELTIC boss Brendan Rodgers said ‘Blame Me’ after the defeat at Easter Road yesterday that resulted in his side dropping to third spot in the Scottish Premiership by the end of the day.
Rodgers attempted to play a system with three at the back and Neil Lennon exploited this from the start. Indeed it resulted in Celtic shipping the first goal after just 46 seconds.
The players however need to look at themselves as from that moment onwards they failed to respond and never really looked like troubling Lennon’s side.
“The formation may well have had an effect, but I don’t think it had anything to do with the goals,” the Celtic manager told Sky TV.
“If we need someone to blame, then blame the system – but that was the system because of the players we had available.
“We had to manufacture a way which we thought could get us a result. It’s not what we’ve been for a few months, but we don’t have the same players available.
“It was disappointing, of course, the result and performance. We gave away two poor goals from our perspective, nothing to do with energy from Thursday, it was to do with tactical discipline and not concentrating.
“The likes of Callum McGregor was playing his 40th game which is an incredible amount of football – and it’s not even half a season yet.
“But, listen, tiredness wasn’t an excuse for the two goals. That had nothing to do with it.
“When you concede in the first minute, it’s nothing to do with energy, it’s to do with positioning on the pitch and our pressing. And the second one came from our free-kick.
“In the first minute, we left gaps, we pressed at the wrong time and then we didn’t track runners at such an early stage of the game.
“That was disappointing because we didn’t get off to a good start playing against a team that wasn’t overly confident. It’s not as if they have been flying high.
“The second one comes from our free-kick. Again, it’s tactical discipline. We don’t secure the ball at the top end of the field and Scott Brown is left in a two-against-one situation at the back.
“So, two poor goals from our perspective and then we didn’t create enough going forward.
“We had some flashes across the box and what-not, but we didn’t quite have the performance level.”
A win against Motherwell at Celtic on Wednesday night will take Celtic back to the top of the league. This is our game in hand over current leaders, the Rangers. To get the three points, Rodgers noted, that “we will need to be better.”
Also on The Celtic Star this morning…
Europa League Draw – All you need to know as Celtic go into the hat…See HERE.
‘Time to deliver, or else!’ Gordon warns his team-mates…See HERE.
“Footballers without heart…” a Celtic supporter…See HERE.
‘Football without Fans…’ Celtic SLO, John Paul Taylor…See HERE.
Jim Craig – ‘The best performance he had ever seen,’ Jinky’s finest game…see HERE.
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