THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ABOUT BRENDAN RODGERS
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
There seems to be a somewhat erroneous narrative emerging around Celtic supporters over the last few weeks. Whether this is coincidental or by the design of those seeking to control said narrative is not for me to say.
It goes something like this: A lot of people seem to equate support for the current Celtic fans protest movement as equally strong support for Brendan Rodgers.
Now, many fans who are active in this new Celtic Fans Collective have expressed sympathy for Brendan Rodgers in his current situation. However, that does not mean he has their unconditional backing.
Supporting Celtic Fan Protests is Not the Same as Supporting Brendan Rodgers
Indeed, looking at some of the frankly embarrassing excuses being made to defend the actions of the Celtic Board by forces friendly to them in recent days, the one thing Celtic fans should be acutely aware of right now is the danger of giving any person or any entity your unconditional, unquestioning support.
No one is above reproach. Not the Celtic Board, and not Brendan Rodgers either.
Questions need to be asked, and they need to be asked with honest intent. How much of the current mess that culminated in an utterly embarrassing 2-0 loss to second bottom Dundee yesterday, is the manager’s responsibility, and how much of it rests on other, external factors?
Let’s be brutally honest here, Celtic haven’t looked right for most of this calendar year. The last time I remember coming away from a Celtic game feeling totally impressed and satisfied with the performance, if not the result, was our 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich. That game honestly seems like a lifetime ago compared to where we are now.
The Dundee result was unacceptable, but looking at our league performances since the beginning of this campaign, was it really that surprising?
We’ve had two draws against teams we should have beaten, and needed two last gasp winners to overcome Motherwell and Kilmarnock. Not exactly awe-inspiring stuff, is it?
We’re now in a position where, even if we go and beat Hearts at Tynecastle next week, something which is by no means a guarantee, they’ll still be ahead of us in the league.
Yesterday brought into cold, sharp focus something that’s been bothering me for a while about Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic team. We are unable to innovate or change when a game gets away from us.
Celtic currently have 4 strikers in their first team squad (five if you count Daizen Maeda as a striker rather than a winger). Yet our current formation means that only one of those players can start the game.
We have no established right winger, three potential left wingers, and a couple of utility players we could play wherever across the front. Yet we still insist on persevering with designated left and right wingers.
Kieran Tierney, Callum McGregor and Kasper Schmeichel have all looked well below their best so far this season. And yet their places in the team appear not to be up for debate.
We’re in a position now where, I believe our most consistent performer on the park this season has been Liam Scales. Now, no disrespect to the big man, he wears his heart on his sleeve and his devotion to the Celtic cause is obvious, but he’s a 7/10 player on a good day.
Celtic shouldn’t be playing a formation where our most consistent player is only a 7/10.
The tactics clearly need to change, the formation needs to change, and the personnel needs to change.
Yes, I admit some degree of personal bias in the whole Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura debacle, given that I’ve followed both players in the J-League prior to them joining Celtic.
Rodgers’ decision to omit these players from even the matchday squad in recent games seems increasingly illogical as time and again the players in those positions aren’t delivering.
Why is it that in a team where we can’t seem to find any kind of goalscoring consistency, we won’t even put a Japanese international striker in Shin, or one of Welsh football’s most promising young forwards (Callum Osmand) on the bench?
These decisions fall on the manager and the manager alone. He can argue all he wants about “club signings” and players not being ready for the first team and so on, but at the end of the day, if the current team isn’t producing, other players need to be given a chance, and our tactics need to change.
We lost the league in 2021 because of a number of factors. However, one of them was the manager’s stubborn refusal to deviate from an approach that wasn’t working, and then the Board’s subsequent failure to remove the manager quickly enough when it became clear he was unwilling or unable to evolve his tactics to meet this new challenge.
Evolving as a player and a manager isn’t just about improving what you know you can do; it’s also about exploring what you can’t currently do. You need to take your weaknesses, acknowledge them and work on them.
It seems to me that Brendan Rodgers’ biggest failings right now are his tactical inflexibility (which also bleeds over into formation and team selection) and his ego which prevents him from making the changes needed. Making these changes would amount, in his mind, to him publicly admitting he was wrong.
That is something he needs to get comfortable with doing, as indeed do the Celtic Board if we’re going to come through this period unscathed.
Make no mistake about it, we are in title race now, and it’s not with the Govan Dodgers.