Q: You’re always demanding on your team. The fact you were 3-0 up in the first half and you still seem to be shouting at the players, saying they weren’t moving it quick enough. It looked like you didn’t want to give Aberdeen an inch today, You just really wanted to press on and punish them, would that be right?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, it’s one where this suits our game here at Hamden. The pitch is beautiful. It was nice and slick for us. And the quicker you can move the ball, the faster the opponent has to move. And then eventually, you hopefully can tie the opponent out. But if it’s slow, and I felt that sometimes we needed to put more speed on our pass, because when you do that, then it creates the gaps in front. So, no, I think we were good in the first half, but I thought we were outstanding in the second half.”
Q: Does Maeda just epitomise everything good about this team?
Brendan Rodgers: “Well, it’s just hunger, isn’t it? He hadn’t been feeling great there for a few weeks just before he went away with Japan and then he came back and he wasn’t great. You could see the tiredness in him. That’s why we give him a rest there during the week for a bit. His appetite to work hard and run is absolutely incredible. Like I say, he gets into areas now and he’s scored really important goals for us this season. So, a real joy to work with. He wants to run and we want him to run and we’re a running team. We need to be active in the game and there’s nobody more active than him.”
Q: How does this set you up for Tuesday?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, it’s obviously a different game, again, a different level of opponent, with the greatest respect. But no, it’s exciting for us. We needed to and wanted to make a really good performance today. And we’ve done that. We are playing against a top team from a great league will be another challenge for us. But it’ll be absolutely rocking at Celtic Park. So, we will look forward to that.”
Q: Did the ref tell you why he booked you?
Brendan Rodgers: “To be fair, it was well-deserved. I shouldn’t have been falling over there. I think it was because I kicked the ball on the pitch. I think we’ll appeal the yellow card. I’m only joking, by the way! I bounced up pretty quickly. Probably through embarrassment. But no, I was a wee bit slippy on the surface with my shoes. So, no it was a good decision by Kevin.”
Q: Your front three were excellent in the game, weren’t they?
Brendan Rodgers: “Aye, with the speed in the game, it’s how we want to play. Once we broke through Aberdeen’s pressure, we had space to exploit. And yeah, no, very, very good.”
Q: You managed to get players back today does that set you up nicely for this run of fixtures?
Brendan Rodgers: “It sets you up quite nicely for what’s a very busy run of finishes. Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s exactly what we’d hoped we could do. Sometimes you make changes as a manager and a coach and you might not quite get the performance that you want. But you have to do it to allow, like we had six fresh players today. So if we weren’t brilliant against Dundee for a little period or against Motherwell, you get your rewards today. I’m so pleased for the players because they all have value to me. You think of Liam Scales, and how brilliant he’s been over the course of this last season. But I felt putting in Auston Trusty with his extra bit of speed, especially with Aberdeen, who want to penetrate and go in behind. He can cover that for us. All the players are getting good game time and all contributing. You mentioned Scales and Trusty.”
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