The tendency in the modern game is to spend money to solve a problem.
Are you short of a central defender?
Go out and buy one.
Too many managers, too many clubs, believe that’s how it has to work. Bosses are judged based on their signings … how else are you meant to judge some of those bosses down south who’s whole reputation has been built on it?
But great managers don’t buy success; they craft it. Alex Ferguson was able to spend as much as any boss in Europe but he built teams, he didn’t go on a transfer splurge every season. When he had to fill a hole in a squad he looked to the youth ranks.
Other managers are creative in strange ways; when Pepe Guardiola saw that Barcelona had a problem with playing the ball out from the back he didn’t go and spend mega-money on a central defender … he spent it on a midfield battler, Javier Mascherano.
And he made him a ball playing defender.
Brendan has dabbled in those approaches, and it has made good players better players.
It also gives us a versatility in the squad which has made us very formidable.
Here are some of the players who Brendan has helped to reinvent.
Kieran Tierney – One Of Europe’s Most Promising Wing-Backs.
Kieran came into our side as a talented left back, but has blossomed into one of the finest wing-backs in Europe.
Brendan has changed his style of play almost entirely, pushing him forward, utilising his crossing prowess and his almost limitless energy.
The change in this kid since Brendan took over has been unbelievable; credit has to go to Ronny Deila for giving him his debut, and for helping his development along, but Brendan has tailored Kieran’s game to suit our style and it’s worked so well that when we moved to a back three in the last few league games Kieran has played, in effect, as a winger.
There is a growing suspicion that this is where he’s going to end up.
Kristofer Ajer – The Midfield Wonderkid Moved To Central Defence
Ajer signed for us as a midfielder of exceptional promise. He was already an international, at a very young age, and a first team player for his club. He seemed to have all the attributes to be a top class hard man in the middle of the park.
But Brendan Rodgers had other ideas; he saw the kid and immediately started to polish his defensive game. He loaned him to Killie on the condition that they play him as a centre back and he returned to Celtic Park having made that position his.
He has already played a number of important games for us in that position; you may one day see Ajer play in his midfield role again, but don’t count on it.
He is fast becoming one of the most important players in our squad, which is a credit to his hard work and Brendan’s decision to let him go out on loan.
It is all coming together for Kristofer Ajer.
Nir Bitton – The Poor Man’s Mascherano?
It’s clear that Brendan borrowed the idea of turning Nir Bitton into a central defender from what Guardiola did with Javier Mascherano. For openers, he played him in that role, at first, in domestic games where we weren’t expected to be under much pressure because teams would defend deep with a lot of men behind the ball.
It was exactly what Guardiola spotted when Barcelona came up against teams; he knew that the lack of attacking threats for the opposition meant that he could build from the back, and how better to do it than by playing a central midfielder in defence?
The injury to the big man has hampered his progress, but when he has played lately he has looked solid in that position. I think if he has a future at Parkhead – and I am almost certain he does – it is in the central defensive slot.
This is Brendan at his best though, turning this guy into such a formidable player in this slot.
Calvin Miller – What The Hell Happened There?
Brendan and his backroom team deserve enormous credit for spotting this one; that an attacking midfield player actually had the ability to play at left back. That really does require a great eye, and the kind of foresight only great coaches actually have.
Calvin made his name early in his career, as such a stand-out player that he was being lauded from the rooftops before he had even signed his first professional contract. He played as a striker, where he scored plenty of goals, and then as an attacking winger.
I thought that would be where he’d finally make the breakthrough as a Celtic player.
When I first saw him listed on a first team sheet, I thought “At last!”
Imagine my shock when I realised he was going to play as a full-back!
He’s a good one too, combining an excellent work rate with a high degree of technical skills. To have spotted that he was also a good tackler with very fine positional sense … well Brendan and his coaching team deserve a medal for that.
Callum McGregor – A Player Reborn, In The Role Where He Belongs.
A lot of the credit for these things pre-dates Brendan of course; it was Ronny Deila who first started messing with our players and where they fit into the big plan. He saw Ajer as a potential centre back. He saw Callum McGregor as a defensive midfielder.
I will never understand that, except in one sense; he turned Callum into one of the hardest working players in our team. He spotted that work ethic. He knew it could be harnessed. Brendan did too, and it must have been one of the things that impressed him most about our midweek goal hero. He gave Callum game time, but moved him.
McGregor had played a lot of his career out wide; Brendan didn’t believe he was a wide player. Like Ronny, he knew that engine belonged in the middle of the park, but he pushed him forward into a slot where he could attack the defence.
And goals have followed.
Along with international recognition.
Callum is now a first team footballer who’s in the form of his life. Brendan has not simply made him better, he’s transformed the way the kid plays.