Brendan Rodgers shares dressing room message to defeated Celtic stars

Brendan Rodgers shares dressing room message to defeated Celtic stars

Everything Brendan Rodgers said in his post-match press conference after Celtic were defeated 2-0 by Dundee in the Scottish Premiership. He spoke about the message to his players post-match, tactical changes, the pressure he’s facing and squad quality.

Brendan, can you just talk us through that performance and the result for your team today?

Well, as you can imagine, I’m a bitterly disappointed with that. We lose the goal, and sometimes that can happen from a set-piece where you get blocked off, but we still had a lot of time left in the game and just didn’t really have the craft or the quality in the final third to break that team down.

Give credit to Dundee. Once they get the goal, they defend well.

The second goal is poor from our perspective. We get down on a counter-attack just before half-time, but we had enough of the ball and arriving in the areas often enough, but we just failed to show that better quality that allows you to get the goals that you need, and that’s where we’ve suffered up until now.

Why do you think that is, Brendan? Why do you think you failed with that quality in the final third today?

We’ve had it over a number of games, but we just haven’t scored and been able to make that pass or make the wrong decisions.

So, yes, there are a number of reasons why, but I need to find the solutions in order for us to get scoring goals again.

What have you said to the players at full-time in the changing room?

I just said that this is where you really have to be a man. Because at Celtic it’s great from the outside when you know look in and you’re winning trophies and playing great football, but you’ve got to deal with pressure.

Also the result and performance today isn’t good enough. It’s not acceptable for Celtic.

They’ve come here a number of times, a number of years, and that today is not their level. So we have to find it.

Is this as concerned as you’ve been at this stage of the season, Brendan? You’re going into a big period, and for that kind of display…

Yes, there’s absolutely no doubt it’s been a struggle from the beginning of the season.

However, we have to stay together and we have to find a way to get the results and get the confidence in the team. We say the speed in the team. We’ve lost a lot of speed and a lot of goals out of the team, but it doesn’t matter now.

I need to find a solution.

Hearts asked a big question yesterday. The team couldn’t respond, and of course Hearts will get a major opportunity next weekend. Is this where you really want to see what the players are made of now?

It’s not even my thinking about Hearts. We’ve got to recover from today. We’ve got to analyse and see where we can be better, and then we get a massive game on Thursday.

Clearly, we’re not at the levels that we’ve been in the past, but it’s such a long season. It’s still very early. We haven’t performed today, and we have to be honest about that.

It’s nowhere near the level of what we’d expect.

Is it a problem motivating the players? You’ve said you need to find solutions as well. Does that come back to you as well, sending out the team and motivating them and getting the guys up? Because there’s been a lethargy since the start of the season, hasn’t there? You said there’s been a struggle.

It’s confidence as well. When you’re a team that’s flowing and scoring goals, then of course the confidence is there. We haven’t really had that throughout the season, so then you can be a little bit tentative on the ball and overthink it so much.

We always felt there were goals in the team, so when you can’t, you don’t look like you’re going to score the goals, then that can affect you.

We’ve got a great bunch of boys at the club, good guys that work hard every day. It’s all self-motivating as well.

It’s that drive and desire. Like I’ve said before, this was a period I was really looking forward to because it’s the challenge, and you want to show how good you are as a player and how good you are as a team. Today we didn’t do that, and we’ll have to regroup and go again on Thursday.

Is some of the noise around the club off the pitch having an effect on it? I mean, we saw another demonstration today, they held up the start of the game. Is that having an effect on players’ mentality and performances?

I don’t know, but what I know is that it was right at the beginning of the game and we’ve still got a long way to go after that.

It doesn’t stop you giving the ball away and losing a goal on a counter-attack. It doesn’t stop you getting blocked off on the pitch, so we can’t use that as an excuse. We really can’t.

Of course, there’s been a simmering really all summer and into the beginning of the season. However, we can only focus on the pitch and we can be better on the pitch, for sure.

What can you do to be better as well? I know you’ve talked about players, but personally

Obviously, you’re trying to look at the different ways to set the team up.

Obviously, we change the structure at half-time and try to find different solutions that way. I’ll always look at myself first and analyse myself and where I can be better. Like I said, it’s my responsibility to try and find a way to get what I can out of the players that we have at this moment.

That’s always the first protocol.

There’s been mitigating circumstances this season, but do you accept there’s a spotlight on yourself as well now to see how you’re going to get through this and how you can get the team through this?

Yes, I think so. Listen, when you’re at a club like Celtic, it’s always on you.

It was on me when I first came back. We got through that. It’ll be on us now when we’re not at our best level, and we’ll get through this as well.

But ultimately, we need to be better. We’re not playing with the speed and fluency that this team has done before, and I have to find a way to get us back to that level.

At times like this when you see the dressing room at full time, do you take a wee eye on how certain players are reacting and how they deal with it, if there are opinions, if there’s obvious emotion, just to give you indicators of the team?

I know the players care. I know that they care. For the new guys coming in. It’s a real eye-opener to the pressures of being at a huge club. You never know that until you’re in and you go through the demands of what is required.

But I’ve got no doubt that the guys want to do well and we have to find a way of scoring the goals and creating the goals that increases the confidence level in the team.

You made a couple of changes at half-time. Did you feel that you picked the right team to win the game today?

If you lose a game you’ll always be criticised. That’s all a part of it. We’re trying to get goals.

I’m playing a boy in Benjamin Nygren in midfield who’s the highest scoring midfield player that we have at the club. He’s coming in from last year, we’re getting 16 goals. In a team that is suffering for goals, you want to try and look to your goal scorers.

We’ve got Yang coming in on the side. It’s an area we know what we’re suffering in. He’s coming in to try and make an impact. It didn’t quite work for him and that’s on me.

As you say, hindsight’s a great thing. You lose a game, you take the responsibility as the manager. I accept that.

Just on the protests Brendan, what’s your message to protestors to avoid that going forward?

I’m not going to tell the supporters what to do. They’re frustrated. They’re the heart of this club.

I just say that after that, we had still a long, long period of time to put a performance in and we didn’t do that. It was at the beginning.

The fans are the heart of this club. The passion is here. It’s their life. It’s their love and they want to see the team doing well.

We had enough time in the game and enough ball in the game to do better for them and we didn’t do that. So it’s on us.

Is this as tough and as worrying spell as you’ve known?

Listen, it’s not all linear and all smooth right the way through the season, that’s for sure. I think the challenge from the summer now leading into here, we lost a lot of firepower, a lot of goals out of the team.

There’s no way you’ll go into a race and be given the keys to a Honda Civic, and as you take off, it’s said, “We want you to drive it like a Ferrari.” It’s not going to happen.

So until something changes, I have to find the solutions because, like I said, goals, speed, everything has come out of the team, and we need to find a way to be better.

You actually feared this could happen deep down? This could become a possibility?

However I felt, I still have to find a way. It was clear in the summer, but it’s really the past now.

There’s nothing we can do about it. We had the opportunities to do what we needed to do. It didn’t happen.

So now it’s finding ways, whether it’s 4-3-3, whether it’s 3-4-3, whether it’s 3-5-2. We’re trying to look at all these different permutations within the team, but ultimately you need that quality to break down teams that are low on the pitch, and for us this season, that’s been the real challenging aspect for us. But it’s a challenge that I relish

I want to be here to, as I said, to make the difference for the players that are here at this moment.

Can you expect to be backed in January?

My immediate concern is now. Celtic is more than one window. Celtic is not just about January, it’s about the future and what I want to be able to do is make sure that at this moment in time we’re the best that we can be and then obviously planning and preparation is already underway for January.

It’s a small window and I hope that we can improve that and then you’ve got the window after that. But at this moment in time, my focus is really trying to get the team, the guys that are here to be at the best level.