Q: Do you hope the game in midweek can be like a watershed for Celtic on trips into Europe? People will look back, fans will look back, and that’ll be the moment when trips into Europe will be going the way Celtic fans hope they will.
Brendan Rodgers: “Well, let’s hope so. It was a very good performance. I was so happy for the supporters, because I’m sure after the Dortmund game, there’s a wee bit of trepidation. You’re playing against a top team who, across Europe, were on the top goalscorers in all the top leagues. But they’re going to have real pride in the team, and that’s what I’m saying. Not just for us as a coaching and managing staff, the players themselves, but for the supporters. They know that this team can now do that. There is a graft there, there is a heart, there is a desire and an organisation that can help us going forward. And that was my primary objective when I said when I came back, clearly domestically we have to do our work, but can we build something in Europe that can allow us to progress and be better?”
Q: Social media is not perhaps the best place to go looking for reactions sometimes, but after the game was a bit of a lukewarm reaction at Arne Engels and just his last couple of performances, does it surprise you that folk are still adjusting to how you set it, and they’ve perhaps come to conclusions?
Brendan Rodgers: “It doesn’t surprise me, no. It doesn’t, it really doesn’t. But it doesn’t really matter. I think everyone, there are critics in the game and people have an opinion. You have to respect that. For me, we brought a young player in who’s nowhere near the finished article. I think sometimes there’s pressure around him and that might feel that you’re buying someone who’s the finished article. He’s not.
“He came in here as a 20-year-old player who’s got great potential and it’s my job here and I’m with the staff to develop that. He’s coming from, I said to him, you’re coming from playing one game a week, where that’s a holiday in my book, to come and play in a big club with big pressure and big expectations and you’ll feel it. And sometimes you’ll play and you’ll be playing a lot of games and sometimes you come out to recover.
“So, it’s all natural. We had the same with Nicholas Kuhn. We’ve had probably the same with Callum McGregor over many years. So, it’s football. And listen, I understand that people make a judgment and an opinion, but I’m so, so happy he chose to come here. He’s shown more than enough in this short period of time that he’s going to be a fantastic player for us.”
Q: Is he one as well in midweek who showed his concentration on the tactical side of the game just to support McGregor?
Brendan Rodgers: “He had a massive job to do on Ademola Lookman. And that was one of the key aspects of his job. And that’s what his strength is. His strength is his running power. And as I said, he’s a different player to what Matt O’Riley was, but it was for that very reason we brought him in with that power and that running ability that he has to cover the ground, do the dirty stuff. And like I said, he had a specific job on that side against Ademola, who is an absolutely brilliant young player. And I thought he did that job really, really well. And sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself for the team and he’s shown that since the first day he arrived, that that’s what he does and how he plays the game.”
Q: Can I just ask you about Tommy Callaghan’s passing?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, I had a message this morning from young Tommy, the son, to say his dad had passed away. So, I think all our thoughts and condolences are with Tommy. I think any player that’s been signed twice by Jock Steen tells you how good a player he was. And it’s always sad. I bumped into Tommy only a few weeks back and yeah, sad day, but a real legend of the club. And all our thoughts are with his family.”
READ THIS – Matt Corr’s interview Tommy Callaghan who passed away today, RIP legend, YNWA
