BRENDAN RODGERS looked back on his side’s 2-0 win over St Johnstone in midweek and ahead today’s trip to McDiarmid Park for the 12.30pm kick-0ff. If you are setting out for Perth, there’s pretty heavy snow falling en route and there are roadworks on the A9 at Dunblane. St Johnstone have undersoil heating so there should be no risk to the game.
“It’s another tough one,” Brendan observed, talking about today’s game to the club’s official site.
“We played very well the other night, but you’ve got to prepare for a different game.
“We’ve always played very well at McDiarmid Park up there, so our strategy going into the game is to work as hard as we did the other night.
“In these types of games, you’ve got to ensure that you’re very strong and very concentrated. Hopefully then your quality can come through.
“The intensity of our game has been good,” Brendan noted, after a very successful start to 2019 with the four wins at Celtic Park.
“It’s been a good start to 2019. Sometimes these games are difficult, they’re games that you are expected to win.
“Managers and coaches will tell you they’re never as easy as that, but we’ve played very well, we’ve had good concentration in the games, and have qualified for the next round and have got our points in the league.
“Our concentration now is to focus on each game, bring our best game, and focus on our performance. We know when we do that we can play at a very high level, but there’s still a long way to go,” Brendan said, before yesterday’s refereeing fiasco at Ibrox gift-wrapped 3 points for the Steven Gerrard’s side to cut the lead to just 3 points. Winning today is therefore crucial, to restore the 6 point lead.
“People are looking at six points as a big advantage. It’s a nice cushion – you’re rather have it than not – but there’s still a long way to go.”
Brendan also took time – as we reported last night on The Celtic Star, to speak to Mikael Lustig about his plans for new signing Jerry Toljan and also about the Swede’s possible contract extension.
“I think a lot of the time when you bring new players in, is that you can forget the current players we have – in this case, Mikael Lustig,” Brendan said.
“This man is a Swedish internationalist, a great guy, he’s been a very prominent part of our success in my time here. If you look at what he’s created and assisted over the last few games, he’s been fantastic.
“He gives us that option to swivel our formation, but he can also play that role where he pushes on.
“But, of course, Jeremy comes in with that real speed, and can bring another dynamic to our game. Kieran on one side has that, and Jeremy gives us the possibility of doing that. It’s very important that you can attack well and with quality on both sides, and hopefully we can do that.”
Also on The Celtic Star…
Forrest Fire and Fifteen Games to Frustrate the Dallas Cowboys
‘I don’t think Mika will be too bothered by any criticism,’ says Celtic Star
Details of Brendan and Lustig’s talk on Toljan and contract extension
New Bhoy Gutman’s Nashville deal is called off and he’s heading back to Celtic
Zombie Outrage! Remember the call for Worldwide ban of Celtic tops at Golf? Now it’s Cricket
The Valencia file (Part 3) – McGrory of Valencia and the end of an era
