It’s a critical stage in the season for the league leaders as they strive to win the Premiership and Scottish Cup.
Brendan Rodgers may have lost his cool with the poor Celtic kitman at Hampden, but he’s determined to keep things under control elsewhere right now. Because the Hoops coach insists it’s time to screw on the trophy and set our sights on cutlery.
Rodgers was captured on tape before last weekend’s thrilling Scottish Cup shootout win over Aberdeen telling club stalwart Stevie Wright off for chatting in Paulo Bernardo’s ear. He laughed it off in Lennoxtown yesterday, but the message was obvious. Rodgers is in charge, and the players must listen to him.
When asked what he said before the penalties, the Irishman joked, “Don’t let your kit man near them!” Didn’t Stevie (Wright) get a little bit of a blast from me? Bless him. “He’s a good guy, he’s Celtic daft, he’s Celtic mad, but you must know your place…”
For Rodgers, that puts him at the top of his club’s and league standings. To stay there, the manager understands that this stage of the campaign is more psychological than physical.
Rodgers has previously worked with sports psychologists at Swansea, Liverpool, and Celtic. But he’s been in the game long enough to trust his own mindset tactics, gleaned from studying neuro-linguistic programming in his youth ays and then more than 700 games in the dugout..
Rodgers said: “I think this is the period where you’ve got to get your trophy head on. You’ve got to get focused on what it takes to become a champion. The players here are well-versed in that.
“They understand the mindset, they understand the psychological traits needed at this stage. Physically, you’ve done a lot of your work. There may be one or two players looking to get back in or up to speed, but in general, it’s all psychological now.
“This is the part of the season where this team has been very good, and this club has been exceptional. The psychology of football is always there, in particular this stage in the season.
“It’s just making sure the players are calm, they’re prepared and there’s clarity around their job. We don’t have anyone coming in externally or anything like that, just a calmness around the environment.
“It’s always in the background. Sometimes it’s the body language that you approach with, and the words you use with the players. I just think at this period of time it is very, very important, that aspect.”
With five league games remaining, it’s all about confidence, belief, and momentum. Celtic have plenty of it after winning the cup last weekend, even if the 120 minutes and spot kicks have aged supporters.
Rodgers wants to bottle that sensation, but he is well aware that some aspects of the performance cannot be replicated in the run-in. He said, “It felt extremely amazing to go through. Our performance didn’t meet my expectations.
“But there are times in life when it’s really important to overcome situations and obviously we achieved the goal, which was to get to the final. But we also had to overcome lots within the game. So the players did absolutely brilliantly to get through that and show that nerve and mindset at the very end.
“Now we see ourselves in the final, which is great. But now we’ve got to shift the mindset to the league and that’s where our concentration is.”
It will help to have some tired and tested activists around. Rodgers addressed an SOS to James Forrest last weekend, and the wiseman rushed to his aid. Rodgers intimated that the 32-year-old could be seen more in the coming weeks as big game players are needed to produce.
He said: “James will be very important. He’s a certified winner. He knows what it takes, and having someone of his ability and stature around the team is very important.
“I think you’ve seen it in a number of the cameos he’s produced recently. He didn’t get so much game time at parts of the season he maybe felt he deserved. We were giving other players a chance who were brought in but longer it goes on you see his qualities and what he brings to the team.
“His mindset and the calmness he brings, along with his quality, will be really important for us. It’s something I have always been impressed with, when I came here the first time and when I left to go to the Premier League, I had no qualms about saying to people that he is arguably the best player I have worked with at receiving the ball on the touchline.
“How he takes the ball, his body shape, how he feints when he receives it, whether that’s on the right side or the left side, and that’s something our younger wingers can learn from. He’s a remarkable professional. From the first time I met him back in 2016 there were some noises about him moving or going, but I never felt that at all – his professionalism, his focus, they were absolutely phenomenal.
“How he looks after his body, how he prepares himself, he never wavered. “There are times this season where he might have felt like he should have played more, and maybe I should have played him more, I don’t know.
“What I do know is I was never going to rule him out because I know what he gave me my first time here and this time he’s been absolutely brilliant. He’ll be an instrumental figure for us, whether that’s off the pitch or on the pitch for us over these closing weeks.”
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