I got home today after a week in Germany, and I’ve had a lot of thoughts about what I wanted to write and how best to approach this piece. I figured the only way to do it properly was to be direct and express my deep-seated concerns about what we saw midweek and what it might mean for the immediate future of the club.
What I keep coming back to, over and over again, are Brendan Rodgers’ comments.
He doesn’t seem willing to change the approach. In part, I understand why he feels that way. But it’s not a defensible position when you look at the results. Doing things the same way repeatedly, while getting negative results, guarantees only more of the same. It’s making his record look worse and his situation harder to justify.
I’ve gone through his comments from the Friday press conference several times. While I understand parts of what he’s saying, and I don’t entirely disagree with him, I don’t hear any real recognition that tactical errors were made by himself and the other coaching staff. We can’t blame it all on players having an off day, getting spooked, or any other convenient excuse. I don’t accept those as valid explanations for what we witnessed – at least not as the only reasons.
Brendan needs to look in the mirror, for his sake and for ours.
If he doesn’t, he risks undermining himself in the one area he can least afford to – with those above him at the club. He’s finally convinced them to start doing things his way when it comes to team building, and that’s a fragile victory.
Now, I want to be clear: I’m not blaming Rodgers entirely for this.
The absolute shambles of the summer still rankles with me.
I know he wanted deals done quicker, and I know that some of his priority positions weren’t filled. But he did sanction the signings that were made, and when you look at the money spent, it’s clear he’s won at least some battles with those above his head.
They are willing to give him the leeway to do it his way.
But here’s the thing: if he wants that kind of backing again the next time he asks for it, we need to see some dividends. We need to see that this backing is going to take us somewhere we haven’t been for a long time. Right now, Rodgers’ reluctance to acknowledge that the problems go beyond the quality of the opposition, or the mistakes of individual players, is making it tougher for him to argue that he’s growing this team and enhancing its prospects.
The one thing he can’t afford, given the financial support he received in the summer, is to act as if there’s nothing to fix.
Let me reiterate, I don’t believe he was given full and unequivocal backing. We came out of the transfer window posting a profit, with key positions either not filled or not properly strengthened. So when I say he’s been backed to a point, that’s what I mean.
But even in that situation, he has to prove that his way is better than theirs, that his recommendations and ideas are superior. He shouldn’t have to prove that under normal circumstances – he’s the football boss, and they’re bean counters. They shouldn’t be second-guessing him. But we know that, at Celtic, they do.
Rodgers must show them improvement, and not just them – he has to show us, the fans, too. We need to see tangible signs of progress on the European stage.
My worry is that if Rodgers doesn’t learn these lessons, he’ll become harder to defend, and his ideas harder to sell when he’s asking for more resources.
If he’s sitting there in January, asking for another £10 million and planning the summer saying, “Let me sign the players I need to get us back into the Champions League groups,” they might do it, but only if they believe he can pull it off.
When I hear him talk about the tactics not being a problem and trying to avoid accepting full responsibility, I see a man who’s going to find it increasingly difficult to make the case when he’s in front of the directors, asking for more backing.
He needs to show that he has the ideas and the vision to take us to the next level on that stage – the one he says matters more than any other.
I’m one of Rodgers’ biggest advocates. I’m one of his biggest fans. But we have to admit that if there are doubts among the supporters about what they’re hearing, those doubts will be reflected within the club itself. Rodgers has a responsibility to himself and to us to dispel those concerns because his project, his revolution, will only succeed if it’s properly backed – and it will only be backed if the people who count the pennies believe in his vision.
More than points, more than coefficient rankings, more than money – that’s what’s really at stake here. I believe Rodgers is the right man for the job, and that if he’s given the backing (which, by the way, should start with a contract extension to tie him up beyond the end of next season – something I think is now critical), he will deliver.
But I’m not the one he needs to convince.
And on this, I would understand if the people at the top of the club are going to judge him on results rather than promises of lessons learned. He needs to see that clearly, and understand that what’s at risk is here is the autonomy he needs to finish the job he’s started.
Yes, a contract extension to show BR’s commitment to making progress Europe,
and which should be reciprocated by the Board making changes in its
own approach to transfer business – and tweaking the business model.
BR should still maintain dominance domestically,
but it might take a while to address our European weaknesses?
Whatever the answer is, it won’t be achieved quickly.
BR is still our best option, and should be given the time to deliver.
I like Brendan a lot he is a good man manager, and he speaks well, but he does have a big ego, and people with big egos don’t tend to admit when they are wrong. I am still astonished with those tactics, they made absolutely no sense, and even after a few days, they still mystify me. Chris Sutton made a great point about Unai Emerys Villa side, who had 34 percent possession against Bayern Munich, and managed to beat the German giants. Chris said Brendan should watch Villas match, and look how an elite manager employed his tactics. I admire Brendan in wanting total football, because in a perfect world I would always want us to play that type of football, but the champions league is a different level.
His arrogance is breathtaking. He has made it clear he has no intention of changing his approach despite his dreadful record of hidings in Europe. Stop making excuses for him.
I understand a lot of where you’re coming from James. I too have thought that tactically
we need to be more pragmatic. Unfortunately I don’t think we, as yet, have the correct mix
of players in the squad to do that effectively. The current squad is still basically Ange’s squad,
selected to play to Ange’s vision.
The backwater that is Scottish football does not actually provide the necessary challenge to have us develop the skills for a ‘Holding Game’ or the necessity to garner specialist defenders of proven merit. Our Teams are built around attacking football played against teams that invariably ‘park the bus’. So we prioritise recruitment for the forward part of the team, the providers and strikers.
Apart from against the top half of the Clubs in our group of games I think we can pull off enough points to progress to the next round. Here I think Brendan is being his usual stubborn git by displaying to the Board that this is what you get when you don’t fully buy into what I require.
A proper, experienced Holding midfield player. Engles, despite his price tag is pretty much an unknown quantity. Why did nobody in the German League or elsewhere for that matter seemed to be interested. A check of his prior stats is pretty underwhelming to be honest. Agreed he seems to have fitted in well so far but he was really poor on Tuesday night, posted missing in fact.
An experienced Left back to challenge Taylor and not a Barcelona Loanee. Where is the third choice striker? We could easily have afforded one if we hadn’t tried to stiff Norwich earlier in the deal. Idah is a useful addition to the Squad and there is no doubt that Brendan wanted him but he was really only worth at the most the £6 million quoted early doors.Our negotiation team(sic) fecked up badly on this.
I think the message Brendan is sending is that he wants deals done faster to enable players to be brought up to speed. When he identifies a set of prospective targets it’s not a pick and mix option for the Board to decide who to go for. He must insist that occasionally the transfer window must be Cost negative or Neutral when a particular role is a priority.
I fear to a certain extent that Brendan, having won, to a certain extent, the last battle with the Board he is already laying his
planned ‘ Offensive ‘ for the next one. If he wins that one then he will be seeking to extend his Contract Long Term.
Just had a great week in Germany, their fans and ours were brilliant both before and after the game. However listening to Rogers saying it will be the same set up and tactics in Italy, fills me with dread. A simple change in tactics by having 2, or even 3, deeper midfielders, stops some of the space through the middle. He has to adapt his tactics to the players abilities. Play a flat 5 in the middle and play either Meada (for his pace) or Idah (for his hold up ability), up front. Kyogo will be better suited to the home ties when we are on the front foot.
I like Brendan he is a good manager and a good man to stick up for Celtic and his players. I think every celt was looking forward to us taking our fast attacking football to Dortmund and see how we stand up to them but what an embarrassment that turned out to be.
At 3 1 it obviously wasn’t the way to go and plan B
(sit back soak up the pressure close up shop keep the scoreline respectable maybe hit them on the break ) should have kicked in and to me BR looked like a novice and our beloved team like lambs to the slaughter. I don’t understand his thinking even the best and biggest teams tweek their tactics to suit their needs on the day.
We got nothing from BR and our goal difference going south at a rate of knots. I think the blame lies firmly at his door not the players. We definitely need plan B against Atlanta or our goal difference will be a shambles much like Tuesday nights display. What a horror show.
These comin European games will show what strategy he ‘s goin tae go for. Atalanta will be another severe test. If the board had strengthened properly, who knows what difference it would’ve made. Hopefully we can still make somethin of this group. On another note, us aside, lookin at that game last night. Somethin ah’ve been noticin. Clemmonts only tactic, is tae try and ‘storm troop’ their opponents in the first 10-15 minutes, same in the spl. Get a very early lead and upset the other side, before they can settle, or find their rhythm. Fair enough. Tho when it disnae happen, they can’t sustain it. They get less and less effective as the game goes on and the ideas run out. It’s a continual pattern. Just an observation.
Between pre game analysis, in game management, and players game management it went wrong. After 10 mins it was very evident that brandt was not cant(doanything)well and mcgregor couldn’t deal with his movement. Engels should have dropped deeper and left Bernardo to press but both kept flooding forward and leaving brandt to continually find space and play the killer pass. I believe itll be one line for tue cameras and a very different sobering video session behind closed doors. You have to remember Rodgers spent his formative years under mourinho who was a master at deflecting the spotlight from the team. It is a sore one, it is one everyone including the manager himself will learn from. As long as its the last of these performances it’s progress. HH
When the transfer window closed, BR knew what he had to play with in terms of squad ability. His job is to get the best results possible from that group of players. On Tuesday he failed to do this. 7-1 defeats stay in our history – our manager has to understand this and control his ego. And this would be in his best long term interest. Setting out a counter attacking team on Tuesday and maybe losing 3-1 would give him more credit with the board that “with a couple of more players we could step up”. Losing 7-1 pisses any credit up the wall.
Totally agree again Joe.
A club of our stature should never be beaten like that. Results like that hugely damage our reputation in the footballing world.
Agree James as well. Great points. Brendan needs to waken up on the European front. Thanks to you both I can leave my darkened room where I have resided from after the game on Tuesday. Cheers.
A lot of things are at play here I’d say…
Firstly money – Dortmund have a far far superior turnover than Celtic and play in a far more competitive league and it bloody well shows or certainly did the other night (Ditto Lyon who rocked up at Liebrox)…
We simply cannot compete with that for sure…
So Plan B then – What do we do ?
Well definitely pragmatism could lessen the blow but we’d probably still be beaten…
However pragmatism and ugliness got Sevco to within one penalty kick of winning The Europe League and Second Class Competition it would have been some achievement – Ugly or otherwise…
But are we sometimes a wee tad caught up in this ‘Celtic Way’ –
Are there times that it’s a milstone around our necks – Certainly in Europe it most definitely is in certain matches…
And Tuesday most definitely WAS one…
Hopefully Atlanta WON’T be !
Hi my names Peter. I’m just thinking to myself; what was the point in blowing 30 mil on players to keep getting hammered in Europe. Could have spent 10, saved 20 and still got grbbed.
As far as I can see BR blamed his players for not following instructions well enough but they simply can’t implement them at this level as the opponents are too good (bigger, swifter, more technically gifted and they take their goal scoring chances unlike teams in Scotland.). The tactics only invited a slaughter and that was obvious early on. No change because Celtic never need to change tactics in SPFl when things aren’t going well as a change of players will be sufficient and hence there is no plan B in SPFL or in Europe. Teams that can’t change tactics only win things in diddy leagues.