Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

I think the problem against them recently is we press with like 5 guys and it's kind of pointless anyway as they are a long ball team, then when they go long even if we win the first header they have more guys in midfield than us and pick up many 2nd balls.

Then even though they only really press with like 4 guys we try to play out with only really 4 players and our keeper, they leave our keeper free and the guy on the ball and just block us passing it to the 4 other players. Our players seem to panic that we are always meant to pass it out short and through teams and it means we are under pressure as theres no easy pass out and it needs to be either a quality pass or someone has to take it under pressure and skin someone etc

Leads to our defenders being under big pressure constantly.

Where as when they have it at the back, we hound them and they punt it and then outnumber us up the park anyway.

Kind of make it too easy for them, they seem to get many chances from either us making a mistake and gifting them the ball in our own half of they get on a long ball and are in like 4 on 4 and 3 on 3 and 2 on 2 chances. Where as us playing out from the back we need to play very well to get up the park and then break through them as they often sit back in numbers.

I feel like against them we drop another midfielder back to give us another option to pass our way out also another body back for when they go long. Should be more of a 4-2-3-1 the same as them.

For them to come to Celtic Park hardly put a pass together and score 3 shows the big tactical problem.

 

Strongly agree. Celtic have better players and we have a much better ability to grind wins away from home in the league against poor opposition. But the idea that we are miles ahead on a totally different level simply isn't true. This isnt said in hindsight. I said before the game when people were talking about 4 or 5 nil pumping that I would be delighted with any sort of win. I really couldn't see any reason to expect us to pump them today given the last couple of derby games.

Especially with a couple of injuries and suddenly our squad looks threadbare. Today we were basically playing with a 2 man bench. I appreciate we will still probably win a treble so it's hard to be too critical, but we need to strengthen properly in the summer and we need to get some aggression into our side. We are not as good as we think we are.

 

Outfought and outsmarted by the sportscene panel. How the * we managed to start the game so poorly is beyond me. It was fairly obvious they would want to fly out the traps early be pressing us and leaving the boot in yet it seemed to come as a total shock to us

 

Will take me a while to get over today. That was a bad one. Yes they were always going to win at Celtic Park at some point, and if there was ever a time to do it, it was when the league was more or less won.

However, I think there's a bigger concern here. We clearly struggle when it comes to playing the huns. They manage to shut us down quicker than most teams and for some reason we seem to * the bed. Even more so than we do against UCL teams. It's totally mind-boggling.

Meanwhile, Rodgers hasn't changed anything really in the last two games against them to react to how much they stifled us at Hampden in the cup final. I was willing to chalk Ibrox up as an off-day at the time. Players ill, huns desperate for any sort of result against us - was the perfect storm. After today, I'm not so sure. There's clearly more to this, we can't just say we were off it again.

I hate losing to them at Celtic Park. So fortunate as a Celtic supporter that I have barely experienced it over the years, but it always gives me flashbacks to my younger days when the likes of Alex McLeish and Walter Smith would get results at Parkhead. It was an absolutely brutal feeling, and today is like that too regardless of the points situation.

The big concern is this continues into next season and they continue to negate us. So far, we've seen no evidence that Rodgers knows how to seriously counter them.

In the short-term, we need to get back on track against Hearts after the break. Run up a steam of good results and then somehow produce a performance at Ibrox. We need to nip this in the bud now.

Chances of that happening? Unlikely

 

See them boys Raskin, Diomande and Cerny absolutely despise us and you can see it.
I don’t see any of our players really despising them if it makes any sense?? Not saying we need a team full of * but a bit of shithousery and leaving a few on them would help. We get bullied by them

 

Let's be real, they didn't even need to go at us that hard. They didn't need to really bully us, we made a lot of unforced errors and we even let them have a breather and recoup in the second half.

But you're right, they showed more grit and fight than us again. I * hate that. The thing is, you can't approach every game like we're this dominant side that's going to take its time and control possession and all that pish. Sometimes you need to accept you're in a scrappy game where the team that fights the hardest wins. Why are we never prepared for that when that's every other OF game ever?

 

I agree with most of what your saying but my point is * forbid he was up against the Rangers team that got 100 points or the one that got to the europa league final because I don't think he would deal with it.

I don't think he's ever dealt with them in a genuinely good place.

 

I would expect a similar performance and result in the final game at Ibrox. We still have the same perosnal, same game plan and mentality as the last 3 derbys....where we've conceded 9 goals. The pressure will be off by then, so little to play for than pride, which aids the scum, and it doesn't seem like this team have much of that and guts to stand up to the mutants.

 

It's tactical really.

When they kick it long their striker chases it down and challenges but their other 4 players like today it was Yilmaz, Tavernier, Diomande and Barron mostly wait to pounce on whatever happens and usually swarm today Engels but usually McGregor.

Hatate and Engels we use to press them at the back so when they go long they play pretty simple and it works effectively.

Either they win the ball or we win it but they usually win the 2nd ball because they are really planning for and anticipating that. We don't win many 2nd balls because we are not set up to, we are set up to get the ball down and pass it out so we leave our deeper midfielder in a lot of space that they close down and pick up easy balls.

If we win the 2nd ball, they know we pass it back and recycle possession to start again and they fall into that shape where they dont care who has the ball or about our keeper they just man mark our left and right back, Engels/McGregor and the other centre-back.

We then panic because say CCV on the ball has no-one open to pass to, and then we pass it about from him, the keeper and today Nawrocki until one of them tries a riskier pass as we are just trapped without an easy ball to play. Hatate or McCowan never really come deep, it's like we just think no keep them higher up but then we never really get up the park to them because it's difficult to pass out from the back to them.

If we manage to play through them then they still have 6 at the back anyway, usually it would be their back 4 and 2 deeper midfielders but today it was a back 3 and 2 full backs and Raskin. So we are playing high risk at the back just for the chance to still need to break down their defence once we get forward. Essentially we need to play through them twice to create goals.

For me it would be simple to put Hatate back beside Engels, spread 2 midfielders wider in the middle and then they need to put another player further forward or we'll always have a spare player by having 6 guys back to play out through. Im surprised we never do it as it basically easily counters what they do and forces them to take more of a risk but we stick to how we always play. Putting an extra guy deeper means they'd need to press us with 5 guys instead of 4 and today they played 5 at the back so they couldn't have done it really.

 

I think what's annoying is they were clearly spent after the first half, bar a 5 minute spell we were clearly better.

For the third goal, I have no clue why were pushed so high up. Aye Johnston needs to do far better but it made no sense, it's 2-2 and we were on the up.

Clement and now Ferguson have figured how to play against us, whoever they get in the summer will just watch back these games and realise all you need to do is press us.

 

Said this months ago and as usual, some people buried their head in the sand.

Since Rodgers came back (and even for a wee while before then), we’ve really yet to perform anywhere near our best against them huns.

They quite often bring their A game against us (which is often hoofball *, but that’s their game). How many times in the last two or three years have we really came out and played anywhere near our maximum in one of these games? Even the 3-0 at the start of the season wasn't as convincing as the score would suggest, and that’s our only decent performance against them in 4.

I know the days of pumping them 4-0 and 5-0 regularly are gone. But * *, we are well, well overdue a convincing performance against them.

That 3-0 under the lights in Ange’s first season feels a * lifetime ago.

 

Spot on.
I’m bored of saying we need ball winning midfielder. Needed it for years but nothing ever changes

 

The issue with Rodger’s is that he’s up his own *. He has not learned or changed anything in the last 3 games against them.

 

Something has to change, they overload the middle of the park and Rogers still hasn’t changed it.

They know how to play against us, regardless of manager and that’s * frightening.

essentially a pundit got the better of our manager today. No hiding from it.

We will win the league, hopefully add the Scottish cup as well but the warning signs are there too see.

 

I'm just generally baffled he seems to have not learned anything from the last couple of games against them, he had us a bit more pragmatic in europe after the dortmund scudding so it's not like he incapable, is it just arrogance against them?

 

I don't believe I've ever heard Rodgers admit that the way we've set up is wrong or needs to be changed. He'll sometimes use 'we' - there's definitely things we can learn from, that we can do differently - but I've ever heard the word 'I' enter into these admissions.

 

Engels couldnae press a crease out of his trousers with a steaming hot iron.