‘You give it all but I want more,’ Celtic boss issues demand

BRENDAN RODGERS refuses to criticise his players for failing to reach the Champions League this season, or falling 5 points behind early runaway leaders Hearts, but he is upping the demands on his squad to start sticking the ball into the net more often than has been the case so far this season.

“We need to be much more clinical in the final third. My trust in the players is 150 per cent,” Brendan Rodgers stated. “Since I came here they have given us absolutely everything.

“They have been brilliant, but I think we need to be a little more dynamic in the final third.

“In the last four games we have kept clean sheets, we are sustaining pressure and, even with ten men the other night, lots of the game was played in the opponent’s half in the final third.

“But we need more. We need more in the final third, but that comes from everyone all the way through the team,” Rodgers continued.

The Celtic manager, in a nod to the summer window which saw the likes of Paddy Roberts, Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Dembele leave the club with the latter two bringing in £27million in transfer fees, knows that this is some about of firepower to have walked out the door.

“We have lost players who are goalscorers, first and foremost. But we still have enough here in the squad.

“You have to find the solutions on the training field and we need to look at getting back to being a bit more aggressive in the final third.

“Thus far we have been OK, but we want to be better.”

And one player who is perhaps due a run in the team is Scotty Sinclair, the Player of the Year in the Invincible season and top goalscorer last season as the Double Treble was secured. Rodgers noted that the popular Englishman has had to sit things out a little too much recently.

“He has suffered a wee bit because we have slightly changed the system, the dynamic of how we play,” Brendan explained. “But he is still very important.

“Scott hasn’t played as much as in the first year. He suffered a wee bit last year but was still one of the top goal-scorers. He still has a prominent part to play for us.”

Rodgers also confirmed that the long-term injury lay-off for Nir Bitton should be over next month with the player now approaching full fitness after his knee op earlier in the year.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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