MAKE no mistake, we have entered uncharted waters with Brendan Rodgers in charge of Celtic and they are choppy to say the least. Dangerous even. First we had the fall-out with the Board, born from the frustrations of Peter Lawwell failing to deliver on agreed transfer targets.
Then we had back to back defeats for the first time since Rodgers took over. That put us out of the Champions League before the Group stages draw – something we were getting used to under the Lawwell controlled Norwegian manager, Ronny Deila.
Then after the Partick Thistle game, Brendan criticised his players for their performance. Forget the result, the performance wasn’t good enough. He continued with that theme tonight in Lithuania and pin-pointed the real Celtic stars, the folk who are a real credit to the club, those few hundred traveling supporters who no doubt were in Greece last week and made their way, faithfully, to Lithuania to be short changed by the majority of the players.
Brendan Rodgers gets that. It was right that he should mention it too.
When he came in that gloriously sunny day in May 2016 he pointed to the Lisbon Lion stand which had for a year or two been covered in huge banners due to the lack of interest and he said his job was to fill those seats.
He did that.
He promised more on the park and gave us a Double Treble, something neither Jock Stein or Martin O’Neill – with better players – could deliver.
He even made us Invincible.
He got us into the Champions League for both of those seasons but we took some heavy thrashings – losing some soft, soft goals. We desperately needed to improve our defence. We didn’t and we paid the price.
And because of that poor defending we couldn’t beat little FK Suduva in Lithuania last night.
Results like that do Rodgers’ reputation no good whatsoever. That reputation matters a great deal to the Celtic manager who is only at our club because he is a supporter himself – he could make much more money elsewhere.
Winning trophies, developing players, following in the footsteps of Billy McNeill, Davie Hay, Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill and Neil Lennon appeals to Rodgers the football guy. But he is well aware of the hard nosed nature of the business of football and damage to the Rodgers Brand is not something he is prepared to ‘take on the chin’.
Directors! Do you job! Sign the players we have targeted!
Players! Do you job! Defend set pieces, clear your lines!
If he is surrounded by people not doing their job and he can’t get them to fulfill the function they are all well paid for then he will not hang around.
That’s why not signing John McGinn was important. It was never about the player, it was always about the manager.
Why did Neil Lennon leave? What did you hear and who did you hear it from? Apparently Tom English mentioned an off the record rant by Lenny bemoaning the lack of investment in the team. But other stories were put out there. Anything but the real reason.
Neil Lennon was a decent Celtic manager – with an injury ravaged squad he beat a Barcelona side, that was among the best the world had ever seen and they were at the peak of their powers when they lost at Celtic Park.
Do you recall that had Celtic defended the last 30 seconds in Barcelona better we would have ended up WINNING that Champions League Group?
Another 30 seconds! That’s how close Lennon was to winning a Champions League Group that included Barcelona!
Ronny Deila was a nice guy and the Celtic support generally warmed to him. But in retrospect he should have been nowhere near the manager’s job at our club. He could not even get the team up to a basic level of fitness – something Malmo noticed and exploited.
It was never Ronny’s fault, the guy who followed Lenny.
Who would follow Brendan? What would it mean for our 10IAR chances?
Here’s what the manager was saying in Lithuania after the game.
“We gave away a soft goal. That is a real, real concern now,” Brendan said after the 1-1 draw with FK Suduva.
“We are not giving away many chances but we don’t defend the set-piece well enough.
“It’s an away European goal, we go back next week to finish the job, but as I’ve said before I look to the performance level and we weren’t quite where we would want to be.
“We seem to lack concentration. That is a problem for us.
“And a pride, really, in terms of defending. That is pretty clear. In games like this one, especially away from home, we have got to really demonstrate that hunger not to concede. And it was too easy for them.
“It was a terrific ball in, don’t get me wrong, but we have to defend it much better than that. It gave them some oxygen in the game when our start and early goal shouldn’t have’.
It’s time for everyone at the club to up their game, that is the message from Rodgers, or else.
“There are numerous answers to this. Whilst you work with what is here, you have to try and improve it, make it better.
“For me, it’s a level of concentration, a pride in your defending and an aggression in your defending.
“These are really important factors.
“I felt for the supporters tonight. They have come all the way out there, maybe 200 of them, on trains, buses, the whole thing. It’s a disappointing performance from them. Okay, they have seen a goal but we have to be much better.
“Listen, collectively we must do better. We know exactly what our routine is. It’s one of those ones, we don’t concede a lot of opportunities which is a plus because it shows we are controlling a lot of the game.
“In our last round we had four shots on our target over two games which showed we were the better team and we conceded three goals. It has to stop. That is something we have to work very hard on and analyse.
“I thought we made really hard work of it, to be honest. We made a good start, Mikey Johnston showed a great bit of skill and I thought he did well for his first start in a European game. That was the perfect start. But after that we cam off plan a wee bit.”
Uncharted waters. Fingers crossed it doesn’t end as a shipwreck.
