When I said in the aftermath of the Barcelona game that we would give a team a similar beating and not only our fans and manager and players would eschew all talk of the res ult being “embarrassing” for the opposition, but the opposition manager would too.
I never expected that it would come some quickly.
We were magnificent today.
Every single player on the park was great (with one exception; De Vries looks so out of his depth right now that the worst thing we can do is keep him in the starting eleven. He needs to sit some games out), especially Kiernan and Moussa Dembele who scored twice and looks just superb. He is going to be some footballer.
Scott Sinclair got goal number six in six league games; he’d already equalled McGrory’s record of scoring five, but McGrory didn’t only score five. He scored eight. So Scott has a ways to go yet, but he’s now only two away from levelling that and three for a new record, and he would deserve to get there because he’s a special player.
What an awesome display this was.
Lee Clark said it was “men against boys”, echoing Brown’s statements after the Sevco match.
“They blew us away,” he said of the second half.
No question of him feeling embarrassed there; he came up against the Brendan Rodgers juggernaut and couldn’t cope with how brilliant we were.
This is one match, but it’s a step on the road we’re on. The manager has shown that he can change the whole mood of the club, get us back to playing top class football and who has made some phenomenal signings. He is also ruthless; the decision to sub Moussa when he was chasing a hat-trick was one thing. But subbing De Vries at half time shows an intolerance of failure that every player in the squad will have burned into their psyche.
Brendan has said the substitution was because of an injury. He’s entitled to protect his player, and that’s exactly what he was doing, but I’ll be stunned if he starts against City. His confidence is shot. A spell out of the side will help him.
We have the City game next; it will be a massive tie (I’ll be watching it in Spain, so no match report or anything else for a week!) and we probably won’t get anything out of it, but the Champions League is an adventure, and one that will coin in the cash, which is important if the man is to get the funds he needs to take us to the next level.
Some of these players can play at any level; Scott Sinclair is one. Moussa and Leigh are others.
But Kiernan Tierney is just wonderful to watch, he is a class footballer who is going to go all the way to the very top of the game. I am glad we have this kid tied down on a long-term deal because he’s one of the finest players our youth academy has ever produced.
We look just superb when we’re on form like this. We destroyed Kilmarnock today, and there will be better displays to come. This might even be the season when we break records and stick ten past a team. It’s not out of the question. There’s a ruthlessness about not only the manager but the whole team at times. Other Scottish clubs must be scared to death, especially those who have us over the next eight or so weeks.
Because we’re only getting better.
In Brendan We Trust.