Before important Celtic games, Brendan Rodgers has a reputation for motivating the players.
In a Celtic documentary from the previous season, the head coach of the Hoops was shown making a passionate statement in the dressing room right before the first top-six split match versus Hearts at Celtic Park.
Just before Celtic defeated Rangers in the Scottish Cup final, Rodgers gave his team an energizing speech, and it appears that whatever buttons the Parkhead manager pushes with his team, it is having an effect.
After Celtic defeated Aberdeen at Hampden yesterday, the manager talked about what he told his team in the locker room, which obviously motivated them to win 6-0.
Rodgers informs the Celtic players that “we decide” how the match against Aberdeen would go.
“I told the players before the game that there are two things that are factual before the game, right?” Rodgers remarked to Celtic TV.
The atmosphere is going to be fantastic. There will be a tremendous atmosphere since there are two teams that are performing well and the greatest teams in the nation right now are competing.
The second point was that it will begin in the dark at 5:30. After that, we make the final decision.
“The players made the decisions about how we play, how we work, how we run, and the caliber of our play.”Therefore, it’s just getting ready as if it’s your first time here, and we clearly have a duty to compete for trophies, so we give ourselves achance here in mid-December now.”
More Brendan Rodgers magic will be needed for Celtic’s next two games.
Now that they have another date at Hampden scheduled, Celtic can confidently look ahead to their next two games.
Rodgers will face RB Leipzig in the Champions League, though, before returning to league action at Celtic Park against Kilmarnock.
In addition to maintaining Celtic’s undefeated domestic record, Rodgers will move the Hoops one step closer to exiting the league phase of UEFA’s top tournament if he can comfortably secure two victories from these two games.
And since the Bundesliga team will be a formidable opponent at Celtic Park, one of Rodgers’ well-known lectures will need to be spot on.
Brendan Rodgers has demonstrated that the Celtic manager does not avoid difficult selection decisions.
In his Celtic team’s match against Motherwell last week, the Hoops manager made some significant alterations. Rodgers started Luke McCowan and benched Arne Engels.
The Celtic manager also sparked controversy when he made further substitutions against Dundee in order to rest his key players for yesterday’s League Cup semifinal matchup with Aberdeen.
But yesterday afternoon, Rodgers made what was likely his most contentious choice when he selected a Celtic starting eleven to play Aberdeen without the always brilliant Liam Scales.
Why Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty were paired by Brendan Rodgers for Celtic vs. Aberdeen
Here, Rodgers discusses his thinking behind the call and acknowledges that it was “very tough” to leave his in-from defender out of the starting lineup.
“It was very tough because Liam has been absolutely brilliant for me since he came into the team,” Rodgers told Premier Sports.
However, we try to analyze every game, and I had the impression that Aberdeen would play a striker who likes to get in behind, so we [wanted to] add a little more speed to the backline.
“The reason for this was that Austin has excellent physicality.”