Rodgers’ European problems are partly about Celtic not having the tools for the job.

Yesterday, we explored the idea that some of Celtic’s current issues could stem from our training methods and, more critically, the composition of the squad at Lennoxtown. Rodgers himself made a valid point, which I agree with, that it’s tough for a team built for one specific purpose to suddenly shift gears and adopt a completely different style of football. That takes time and adaptation.

But there’s another factor here, one we haven’t yet delved into. In order to do a specific job, you need the proper tools. Sometimes, you can get by without them, improvising here and there, but it’s never quite right, and you’re gambling on the whole structure holding up in the long run.

Let me tell you something: I am absolutely hopeless at DIY. There are people out there whose brains just work differently—they can buy flat-pack furniture missing a few pieces and somehow make it all fit together. They have the patience, the know-how, and the skill to find a solution. They can grab a spare bit of wood, trim it here, cut it there, and improvise their way to completion. I’m not that guy. I can barely build that stuff when it’s all accounted for.

But even the most talented DIYers need the right tools. Give them a blunt saw, and they won’t be able to do much at all. No matter how clever they are, no matter how resourceful, you need the right equipment for the job. That’s where amateurs like me struggle, and it’s also where a lot of our media’s analysis of football teams falls flat—they don’t recognise that, in many cases, the right pieces simply aren’t there. As good as Rodgers is, he can only work with the tools at his disposal. And it’s not just that Rodgers has built a team with one purpose in mind, it’s that his toolbox, too, has been assembled with one purpose: front-foot, attacking football.

Rodgers is a craftsman. That’s the kind of team he builds, full of flair and technical prowess. But sometimes, what you need isn’t a pruning knife; sometimes, you need a sledgehammer.

One of my long-standing issues with the side is that Callum McGregor doesn’t quite fit into his current role. I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it until it changes: Callum is an attacking player shoehorned into a more defensive position. Yes, in Scotland, he does well enough, but that’s because our opposition is weaker. McGregor is a piece of improvisation—he doesn’t quite belong where he’s placed, but most of the time, he holds things together.

I said to my old man at the weekend that I’m not sure where Paulo Bernardo fits into this side. As someone who’s played Football Manager for years, I’m used to thinking of players in terms of their roles, and I still don’t know what Bernardo’s is.

He’s not a box-to-box midfielder, nor is he an attacking midfielder, a defensive midfielder, or a ball-winner. He’s a central midfield player, but right now, he’s a jack of all trades, master of none. There’s potential there, no doubt, but he’s still finding his feet.

Reo Hatate, on the other hand, is a classic attacking midfielder. And now, it seems we’re trying to mould Arne Engels into that same role. McGregor, too, isn’t playing as a pure defensive midfielder; he’s playing as a deep-lying playmaker, orchestrating things from behind the midfield. These are all offensive-minded roles, designed for a team that plays on the front foot.

We’re simply not set up to soak up pressure and defend deep. If that’s what Rodgers wanted to do, he doesn’t have the tools for it. And if you look closely at the squad, it’s glaringly obvious.

People talk a lot about our search for a left-back, but we’ve been searching for a proper ball-winning midfielder, an enforcer, for even longer. Someone aggressive, who prowls the midfield and disrupts the opposition. That search has been ongoing for years, and it’s something I’ve pointed out window after window. The last time we had someone who fit that mould was Victor Wanyama.

Scott Brown did the job for a while, but he wasn’t a natural in that role. Since Wanyama, we’ve tried Oliver Abildgaard, Kwon, Kouassi Eboue and Ismaila Soro to name but a few but none of them made the grade. They were all short of something.

Over the summer, almost every midfielder we were linked with was an attacking player or a playmaker. Rodgers has built this team to be dominant, not cautious. And this is a carryover from last season under Ange Postecoglou, who had a similar philosophy. Neither manager has prioritised building a team that’s solid, defensive, and able to grind out results. It’s just not how we’re built, and until we start signing players who can do that job, it won’t change.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with building a team that way.

Some of the best sides in Europe have been constructed around two ball-winning midfielders in what tactical geeks like me call the ‘double pivot.’ Bayern Munich has done it, Manchester City uses it at times, and Real Madrid often closes out games with that setup. But those teams have the key personnel to make that work. Celtic does not.

What we’re really asking Rodgers to do, then, is to build something strong and robust without the right tools. And that’s a tall order. It’s partly a philosophical thing—Rodgers believes in attacking football—but it’s also a matter of personnel. If he wanted to play a more defensive style, he simply doesn’t have the players for it. We’ve built a squad that’s designed to press, to play on the front foot, and to dominate possession. We’re not built to sit deep and absorb pressure, and we certainly aren’t built to win the ball back in midfield with a bunch of bruisers.

As I said in my previous piece, I expect some tactical tweaks for the Atalanta game—there pretty much have to be. But don’t expect a dramatic change of system. First, the players haven’t been trained in it. And more importantly, we just don’t have the players to make it work. That’s a harsh reality if you were hoping for a more robust, aggressive Celtic side, but it’s one we’ll all have to face—at least until January, and probably longer.