Brendan Rodgers spoke with Sky Sports Scotland this afternoon from Lennoxtown as the Irishman prepares his side for another trip to the Highlands. The Hoops face-off against former Celt Malky MacKay and his Ross County side, who always put up a decent showing whenever they come up against the Scottish Premiership Champions.
Both County and Celtic are fresh off of the back of draws against Edinburgh side Hibernian, with the Bhoys held to a frustrating 0-0 stalemate last weekend in the cinch Premiership. MacKay and his men managed to salvage a 2-2 draw with Nick Montgomery and his team at Easter Road, after going down 2-0 on the night but recovering really well from that setback.
Brendan Rodgers praised his fringe men for coming off the substitutes bench when St Mirren were in town during the week. After falling behind early doors, the Celts grabbed an equaliser through David Turnbull – who later missed a golden opportunity to put his side ahead from the spot but hit the post – and were then on the precipice of dropping yet more points until Oh Hyeon-gyu fired his team ahead on 83 minutes, thanks to some wonderful play by Odin Thiago Holm.
The former Liverpool and Leicester City boss was fulsome in his praising of those who are not regular starters for keeping themselves so sharp and ready to aid the cause and impact a game at any given time from the bench.
With Reo Hatate out injured and Kyogo Furuhashi bearing the burden of being the goalscorer in the side, chances are there for the squad men to chip in and ease the burden on the starting line-up.
The Celtic manager also couldn’t speak highly enough of his counterpart at the Staggies for getting the absolute maximum out of his players on a consistent basis. After securing their top-flight future for this season, when overcoming a really tough end of season Play-off match, MacKay has once again galvanised his squad to go again and see if they can improve with each passing year.
Have a listen to Brendan Rodgers talk about this weekend’s fixture which will be on Sky Sports this Saturday 12.30pm below…
🍀 “I trust in the squad…”
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers could make changes for tomorrow’s game vs Ross County as he also considers next week’s Champions League clash.
📺 Sky Sports, Saturday 12.30pm pic.twitter.com/dU7g5gi5DB
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 3, 2023
Paul Gillespie
Matt Corr’s new book Majic, Stan and the King of Japan is out now and Neil Lennon, the Celtic captain that season, has written the foreword for us.
You can get a signed copy of the hardback version direct from Celtic Star Books by clicking on the image below. It’s also available an an e-book via Amazon Kindle and please note that all colour photographs that appear in the beautifully presented printed hardback book are also available in the Kindle version of Majic, Stan and the King of Japan…
