“Fitness-wise we’re in a really good place, so all fit and ready for tomorrow,” Brendan Rodgers confirmed at the beginning of today’s media conference…
Then the Celtic manager looked back on the Champions League draw with Club Brugge in midweek after having had a few days to analyse it further…
Valuable point
“Yeah, really pleased. Of course, you want to win every game, of course, you do, but we mustn’t fall into the trap that we just expect, because we’re playing against a really good side, a tier-two team, they’ve got more experience, recent history in the Champions League than ourselves.
“That’s the game I felt that I’ve been in before, that we’ve lost. My first time here, we played a couple of games similar to that. I mentioned Borussia Mönchengladbach and Anderlecht at home, and the game got away from us.
“But I feel that this group is making great steps to really be competitive at the level, and to do that against a really good side, who in the game before beat Aston Villa 1-0, which tells you they’re a really good team, and for us to come back into the game and finish the game really strong.
Trap of expectation
“So yeah, as I said, we mustn’t fall into that trap of expectation, of just thinking that we have points and play well against other teams, and a team like Club Brugge comes and because maybe not so many people know so much about them, you think you just roll them up.
“This level doesn’t work like that. So for my players, I was very pleased, and especially with the response in the second half. So yeah, another step to where we want to go,” Brendan explained.
The Cameron Carter-Vickers own goal was ‘just one of those things’ according to the Celtic manager who joked about Nicolas Kuhn maybe looking at claiming the assist.
“I said to Nicolas Kuhn, as long as he doesn’t claim the assist”
“Yeah, it’s just reinforcement. It’s not so much him himself, it’s just one of those things. I said to Nicolas Kuhn, as long as he doesn’t claim the assist, because he seems to be getting assists left, right and centre these days!
“But no, it’s just one of those things. We needed to get into shape earlier, that was the correction that we make on it. He’s been a real colossal player for this club and will continue to be. His response in the game was actually very, very good.
“So just one of those things that happens in the game, but his response and the team’s response was very good,” the Celtic manager said.
Referencing some of the earlier comments from Adam Idah about the difficulty in switching from Champions League football back to domestic action Brendan has no problem with the transition and notes that there has already been numerous examples of this going well enough so far this season as Celtic have now played five Champions League matches in this campaign.
Fifth transitions from Champions League to domestic football
“I think what hopefully you’ll see over the course of this season is that we’ve played five games in the Champions League, and we’ve gone from Champions League to domestic. It’s exactly that.
“I think every game as a Celtic player, and I think the longer Adam is here, he will recognise that himself also – that every game is a big game. You can’t just turn it on and off. The Ross Countys, the Hearts, all these games, these are the games that get you there.
“It’s a good point for us the other night”
“So for us, it’s a good point for us the other night. We prepare now, we recover and then we look to bring a big energy into the game tomorrow. So it’s always a challenge, but these are the challenges that you have to meet to be a top player at this club.
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