Brendan Rodgers can only really be described as a perfectionist.
The Celtic manager does not do things by halves and knows how important it is for his team to be at their best consistently to ensure points on the board and titles in the trophy cabinet.
Fans caught another glimpse into the boss’s psyche this week after Celtic mauled Aberdeen 5-1 in Scottish Premiership action where goals from Daizen Maeda, Jota, Callum McGregor and Yang saw off the Dons in comfortable fashion.
Arne Engels claimed Celtic were “not happy” at elements of the first-half in that game despite leading 3-0 at the break. And that showed the exact mindset from the runaway league leaders and the winning mentality they have.
Jota appeared to agree with Engels’ analysis at full-time as he talked through his goal and now Rodgers is the latest to admit there was a frustration in the game despite a whopping scoreline against a side who had previously offered the most competition for Celtic this season.
Rodgers was ‘not overly pleased’ with Celtic’s Aberdeen mauling
The Irishman spoke about standards ahead of Celtic’s clash with St Mirren this evening and he dissected the Aberdeen win in the process.
And when asked how pleased he has been with the hunger of his side, Rodgers again expressed his opinion on being “not overly pleased” with some elements of the Dons outing.
“We’ve tried to set a standard of performance and I think the scoreline was fantastic,” he said.
When you come off against one of your rivals, one of your big rivals up here and you can win 5-1 and still be not overly pleased with elements of the performance, then it shows you the standard that we demand. That’s a good thing, because you can always improve, even in a 5-1 win.
“That’s what we’ve spoken about. The whole point was to get to this point of the season in the best place we possibly could. We have 10 games to go, having the lead that we have, having already won a cup, having shown progress in Europe, we arrive now into this stage of the season where virtually from Saturday we’ll go into one game a week.”
Celtic’s fixture schedule now after Champions League involvement
Celtic’s schedule will now be considerably lighter given the lack of Champions League football they’ll have in midweek.
And that, for Rodgers, has to be a good thing. The boss has always enjoyed the European competition but he acknowledges it has taken a toll on some of his players.
The calendar is a grueling one for Scotland’s elite but Rodgers insists his squad have come through it superbly.
The freshness, the ability to train, to work on things becomes a great advantage for us and that’s all we can ask. The players have really set a top standard. It’s been relentless for the last three and a half months.
“In the last three months we’ve played over half a season’s games in three months. I think it’s 23 games or something we’ve played. Because of the nature of how we play and the level we want to play at, they’ve been absolutely magnificent.
“I can’t speak highly enough of them, but we’ve still got a big job to do. We have the advantage in the league of course, but for me it doesn’t mean anything. We have to go into every game to win and to perform at the highest level we can.
