KIERAN TIERNEY insists that Celtic’s rather sluggish start to the season is something that the squad has now put behind them and they are now ready to start firing on all cylinders.
Celtic crashed out of the Champions League and suffered set-backs in the league at Tynecastle and Rugby Park and that has all contributed to the a level of criticism for the team that has not been around certainly in the time that Brendan Rodgers has been the manager.
Tierney gets that there has been criticism and that some of it is deserved but that doesn’t dampen his optimism for the season ahead as Celtic chase a Treble Treble and progress in the Europa League.
“Everybody knows, ourselves especially, that we didn’t start how we wanted to this season,” Tierney said today at the launch of Celtic’s new Behind the Scenes DVD. “All we can do now is make it right. We’ve done that in the last couple games and hopefully it continues.
“The pressure at Celtic is that you need to win most games, if not all. That’s our aim to do that. In the last couple games, we’ve corrected that and we’ll look to continue that.
“There’s not been a drop off in effort. It’s 100 per cent every day. To keep up the form of the last two seasons would be incredible. We’ve not been able to do that at the start of this season, but there’s still a long way to go and a lot to play for this season.
“A few performances have below our normal standards and the standards that we like to set, but when your standards are like that, there’s going to be games where you come up short. For us, that’s come early in the season but we’ll be looking to get that out of the road and hopefully it will never happen again.”
Tierney, like all of his team-mates, accept that there has been some disquiet among the support and maybe even a little bit of glee in the media as Celtic have stumbled.
“There’s going to be criticism at a club like Celtic. There are a lot of people are out to get you, but the coaches, the team and the fans all stick together, and to have that family feeling between us all and knowing we’re fighting for the same cause is brilliant.
“We’re all professional football players so we know ourselves if we’ve played well or not played well and what we need to improve on. The critics we listen to are the manager and coaches. They tell you what you need to improve on and they’re the critics that matter.
“The last two seasons were incredible. We played a lot of games and got a lot of great results. To say at this stage that we haven’t done as well feels too early. Who’s won the league after seven games?”
