Celtic manager Rodgers’ ‘valued’ message to Scales & Taylor – Everything Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said to the media ahead of his side’s match versus RB Leipzig in the Champions League…
How’s the squad from the weekend? Any changes?
No, everyone’s in a good place. A quick turnaround, but everyone is good.
How do you feel about this particular challenge or how it compares to the ones you’ve faced previously?
RB Leipzig will be no different to Borussia Dortmund or Atalanta – they’re a top team near the top of their league. They have everything that you would want in a top European side in speed, power, strength and technique. It’s a brilliant challenge and one we’re really looking forward to, having been away for the last couple of games. Off the back of the result in Atalanta, we’re at home and we’re really excited by that.
How helpful is it to go into this one off the back of so much positivity?
Off the back of the first game here, we showed the intensity that we wanted, we obviously went to Dortmund and that was a really challenging night for us. We’re obviously really grateful for the support we had after that. The supporters were really good for us on what was a really difficult night. That gave the players the energy and the confidence to then go forward. Like it is, you always have to learn and have to be better. We were that in Atalanta against a really, really outstanding team. So now we have the chance to come back home and be a full house, and really look to bring our energy to the game, but also know that we’ll have to defend for a good period of the game as well and defend with the concentration and commitment that we did in Atalanta.
Did the players maybe need that Atalanta performance just to get a bit of belief back after what had happened in Dortmund to look forward to the next games in this competition?
Yes, definitely. I think that it was a challenging evening in many aspects, but I’ve mentioned it before with this group of players, I think what carries any individual or any team is the mindset. This is a team whose mindset is to improve and to be better. We knew we needed to be better after that game, me included, and we were able to go away and focus on that. We were much better in our game in Atalanta. So, yes, this is another good opportunity for us to perform at a high level. Just about having those concentration levels right and getting the distances correct, because it was there against Atalanta, obviously there’s going to be a lot of attacking talent in the RB Leipzig team.
Are you needing a very similar performance to that?
Yes, I think, as I said, in the three games that you mentioned, the Borussia Dortmund, a lot of the ideas going in were similar because you’re playing against such a top-level opponent, but the game just got out of control too quickly for us in Dortmund. We were probably just individuals then in our pressing. That allowed us to regroup again and go to Atalanta and press how we wanted to and defend how we needed to. The players showed that they could do that against a really, really top attacking team. So, we’ll need to do that again tomorrow. There’s going to be times where we’re going to be able to press again and be really aggressive on it. There’s going to be moments where we have to be controlled in that and then look to play and cause them a problem when we have the ball.
Brendan, because your players have shown and demonstrated that they do have that added dimension to their game, as shown against Atalanta, did you notice a more confident approach with them? A kind of growth, almost, that they prove that they can play a different way.
Yes, it’s not so much a different way. It’s just you have to have that resilience. I think that top teams will push you back. You can go with the idea, whatever idea it is you want, but you know at moments in games you’re going to have to defend, and you have to have that organisation and have that resilience to be able to do that. So, I think that what Atalanta proved to the players at the very highest level, we can do that, but it really takes a big concentration. It takes a big commitment, and it takes togetherness in order to do that because the team together, how they moved, how they were all synchronised in their actions and moving up the pitch and being tight and filling in spaces, they were very, very good. So, it will be the same tomorrow, but you need moments of that and then that earns you the right to then play.
Just in terms of the atmosphere, the positive side of the atmosphere, how much is that going to help tomorrow with trying to get more points on the board in this league?
Yes, your home games are very, very important at this level and we all know here that, as I said, when you want the result, then the supporters can bring you closer to that. I think it’s going to be that intensity will be needed and the noise and what it generates here is absolutely incredible. We’ll also need that little bit of patience as well because there’s going to be moments whenever you, at times, supporters will want you to go forward and want you to press, but we have to be educated in our pressure and for that, that means making sure that everyone is in tune with that because you can’t sustain it. You can’t continue to do it against the very, very top teams. So, there’ll be moments of pressure. There’ll be moments where you’re compact and tight, waiting for that tactical moment to press and I’m pretty sure the crowd, as I said, they’ll really get behind the players and hopefully can push us to a result. But I’m really excited by it because we’ve got ourselves, after three games, into a really good position. Two really tough games, a fantastic performance here and now we’ve got another opportunity to show that we can pick up a result against a top, top team.
Brendan, have you got a tough call to make in terms of the centre-back position? Auston (Trusty) obviously came in at the weekend. Liam Scales has been terrific for you this season.
I think I mentioned before that all the players have value. I know I can put any one of them in. It’ll depend on the game that we want to play and with some of their strengths. I think all the players know they’re valued, and they know that they’re going to be playing games, even if it’s not the next game. They’ll maybe get an opportunity in the next one after that. We sit down and we always come up with a plan in terms of what it is we want to do and then the players that fit around that.