A MAKE-OR-BREAK WEEK FOR BRENDAN RODGERS CELTIC CAREER
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Oct 27
- 4 min read
I don’t like ultimatums, and I certainly do not like calling for anyone to lose their job. It’s something I’ve been through fairly recently, and I genuinely would not wish unemployment and the uncertainty it creates upon my worst enemy.
That being said, my honest feeling is that Brendan Rodgers' Celtic reign will end if we don’t win our next two games.
The time for excuses is over. Hearts beat us yesterday, and beat us well. They did so, not through negativity, not by playing 11 men behind the ball and hoping for a lucky break. They showed invention, flair, and at times some really good football.
For me, that is even more worrying than had we simply drawn a blank against another side playing a low block.
Brendan Rodgers Celtic Team Looks Tired and Out of Ideas, and it’s Only October...
Brendan Rodgers adherence to a rigid 4-3-3 set-up when we have no right wingers and injuries galore isn’t just stubborn or inflexible, its bordering on lunacy at this point.
I was talking with my dad earlier today. He and I often spend an hour or two the day after a match going through what we feel Celtic did right or in this case, did wrong.
The most concerning thing is, we couldn’t really single out any particular flaw in the team. We created chances, we played as well as we could given the personnel available and the chosen formation, Hearts were just better, it's that simple.
There is a reflexive instinct among some fans to pick out a scapegoat when things like this happen, and at the moment it seems to be young Dane Murray who is carrying that particular cross.
I’m not going to single people out, because that’s not how I operate. What I will say though is that the eagerness with which some writers, and I’m sad to say some of my fellow Celtic supporters have thrown this young man under the proverbial bus because of one bad game is nothing short of disgraceful.
Dane Murray is a young player, trying his best in a very difficult set of circumstances. Not only was he drafted into the team at very short notice, but he came in at the expense of Cameron Carter-Vickers, who, even when not fully fit, most would agree is our best central defender by a country mile.
Personally, I think we could have got away with playing either Murray or Donovan yesterday. But playing two players so young and inexperienced, together, on the right side of defense, in such a crucial game, was just asking for trouble.
That is entirely on the manager, not the players.
We had Auston Trusty and Anthony Ralston both fit and ready to go, but the manager chose to play two young players instead. It was a gamble, and it was one that, admittedly, many fans were calling for prior to kick off.
But ultimately, it was the wrong choice, and it leaves us 8 points adrift of the league leaders, and only 5 points ahead of the worst Rangers side I’ve seen since, erm, last season.
I’m just a writer, whose football career peaked at aged 16 when he had trials with Queens Park. So, my opinion ultimately doesn’t mean much. But for what its worth, here’s what I think.
If we don’t beat Falkirk in mid-week and then take care of the Govan Dodgers on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers needs to resign.
I know some will say, that’s exactly what the board want, and that they’ll just parachute in a “yes man”. But to be honest, if that “yes man” is willing to play two strikers up front, give our new Japanese Bhoys a chance without dismissing them as “not up to standard” and stop trying to make players who aren’t right wingers play on the right wing, I’d welcome him.
That’s how bad it is now. Now, as I said earlier, scapegoating Dane Murray is wrong. Any young player can have a bad game, especially when you’re at a club like Celtic where fans are at odds with the board, the manager seems disinterested, and the players are grossly underperforming.
But we also had the option of Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, someone who played in the Champions League for Manchester City last season, or, dare I speak the name that Brendan Rodgers dare not utter, Hayato Inamura, another center back, who, for me, did very little wrong in pre-season despite being played out of position.
Was Dane Murray, at this current stage in his development, really a better option than either of these two untested but vastly more experienced players?
Again, that’s on the manager. He clearly doesn’t like Simpson-Pusey or Inamura, and he also only played Shin Yamada yesterday because he literally had no other options.
That kind of blind stubbornness needs to stop.
We’ve all worked with people we don’t like, but if they are the best ones for the job, then they should be the ones we call upon, if we truly want the best for our team.
That applies to work, to life in general and also to football.
Brendan Rodgers needs to put whatever personal issues he has with these players aside and give them a chance, because clearly the players and formation he has at the moment are not working.
We’ve got 6 days to work this out, before a cup semi final.
If Brendan Rodgers can’t set his ego aside, and make the right choices, then he needs to make way for someone who can.
I would love nothing better than to come back to this article in a week’s time and admit that I was completely wrong, that I’m full of p*sh and wind, having watched Rodgers mastermind a commanding win over Falkirk and then a long overdue Sevconian skelping.
At the moment though, I have serious doubts that will happen.
