Q: How good is it to have that competition in the team?
Brendan Rodgers: “Obviously, you’ve got it left back now with (Greg) Taylor and (Alex) Valle as well. Yeah, well, I think it’s important, very important. You see Taylor coming on today. He can clean up the game for us. Alex was really good. But then we wanted to just get a cleaner with our passing and get a better control and Greg comes in and does that superbly well. As does Scales. He comes in and settles the game. Yeah, they’re both very, very important players for us.”
Q: Can you replicate that on Tuesday night?
Brendan Rodgers: “It is a totally different game. A totally different game. I think the idea is we have to be balanced. We’re playing against one of the top, top teams in European football. I know they lost today but we’re playing against a really, really top team. So we have to be mindful of their physicality, their speed, their pace. Everything that you would have seen with Atalanta. So it’s about balance. It’s about putting pressure at the right times and closing gaps. But also looking to impose our way in the game when we can.”
Q: How important are the fans on Tuesday?
Brendan Rodgers: “Well, Celtic Park is always so important for the team to perform. And I always feel that when Celtic really wants a result, the supporters can really pull the result towards you. So I’m so looking forward to it. They’re really, really special nights. But I think the supporters in the main are happy with the team. They’re happy with the progress. Happy with how we’re doing in the Champions League, bar one game. I think we’ve seen that that was just one of those results that went against us. And now we can get ready for a really exciting game on Tuesday.”
Q: Today’s performance seemed very fluid, especially in the attacking phase. (Reo) Hatate and Arne Engels performing really well in those half-spaces. Was that something that just came naturally to the players or was there a specific tactical tweak?
Brendan Rodgers: “No, no, it’s how we play. It’s how we play. You’re playing against a team that’s going to press 4-4-2. So you’ve got to try and connect the game through those areas. It’s just the players know the patterns of how we can arrive in there. But yes, the fluency of the triangles on the side of the pitch was really good, between the full-back, the winger and the on that side of the pitch. So, yes, it was good, especially in the second half. That’s hopefully how you would see us play in the main.”
Q: Matching those triangles between the wingers, the midfielders and the full-backs. Is that something you sort of really emphasise in work and training to sort of see it match?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, listen, the team are coached in that way. It’s the patterns you see the full-back moving in on the inside, more so on the left side than the right side. We were able to adjust to them pressing with the two. We could then morph to a three as well at the back. So we were fluid in being a two and being a three at times. But yes, it’s just repetition. That’s obviously the big satisfaction for a coach when you can see the relationship between training and the game and all the great work that goes on by the coaches and everyone. It’s good to see, but it’s repetition, repetition. There’s no, as I said before, there’s no secret in the football. We work very, very hard in that fluency. Then we get days like today, which is great.
Q: Is the most pleasing thing for you that this team can get better and will get better?
Brendan Rodgers: “I think it will do. I think it’s, and that was part of my frustration of getting booked. It’s my job, of course, to win and win titles and everything else. But I’m a developer at heart, you know, so people will say, well, what can you develop when you’re 6-0 or whatever the score? Every day you can develop and improve. And that’s what I always look to, to drive home, that standard of performance to be better. So, you’ve got lots of players that are young enough and even the older players, you can always improve and that’s something that we drive through every day.”
