Rodgers Critiques Players After Celtic Match

Brendan Rodgers delivered a highly critical assessment of his players following today’s 1-0 defeat away to St Johnstone. It was by far his angriest comments of the season.

Ultimately Rodgers carries the responsibility for results and performances, today’s defeat was the sixth of 2025, throughout 2024 Celtic lost only two matches.

Even after losing 7-1 away to Borussia Dortmund in September Rodgers defended his players, a few weeks later they regrouped and drew 0-0 away to Atalanta to relaunch their Champions League campaign.

There is no need to relaunch an SPFL campaign that could probably end with a title win even if all of the remaining matches are lost but a reset is needed if the season isn’t to fizzle out.

Season Ticket holders have paid big money for 19 SPFL matches, they want to see their team playing at 100% in every game with the Scottish Cup won with a flourish. St Johnstone will have to be overcome in two weeks time at Hampden.

Switching on and off isn’t an option. Over the last three matches Celtic have started very slowly, they got away with it at home to Hearts but paid the price in the other two matches with every manager in the Premiership given a template of how to knock Celtic out of their stride.

Rodgers has a responsibility to motivate, after the pain of losing out in the Champions League to Bayern Munich three domestic matches have been lost, every away game has been a struggle.

The squad is small and tight in quality, there isn’t scope for massive changes in players which puts the onus on the manager to transform attitudes in training that are obvious from the first whistle against Kilmarnock on Saturday.

Rodgers was unusually critical in his post-match interview with Celtic TV, below is the transcript of his all-in media conference where he questioned the attitude and mentality of the players with a promise of transfer activity in the summer.

What are your thoughts on today’s game Brendan?

RODGERS: I want to firstly give huge credit to St Johnstone. Sometimes that can get bypassed in the result, in our performance, but I thought for them, they fought for every ball from the first whistle. They get the goal and then they defend for their lives in the second half.

So it’s a huge credit to them and congratulations to them. For us, poor start to the game, but not the first time. This is something for me that we will look at, certainly in the summer.

But the start was really poor, it was soft, and it was too comfortable in the game. We go behind and then obviously we are much better in the second half. They make some great saves, they make some great blocks, some of it is per finishing from ourselves.

But overall, we disappointed today. We got three stands in the stadium full of our own supporters, expectant and that’s what you have to deal with as a Celtic player. We didn’t deal with that at all.

When you say you look at the slow starts in the summer, just straight after the game, what are your thoughts on that?

RODGERS: It’s mentality. It’s a group that has mental strength. But I’ve been in teams, especially up here, where you just power your way through the season, right to the very end.

And there’s maybe a few that are comfortable. And comfort is not a physical place. When you’re comfortable, you become a bit timid, and you lose duels, and you lose the fight. And you can never be that. And you can never be that if you want to be a top player. So collectively, that’s the annoyance.

It’s easily done. You can go into the game and look for an easy game, top to bottom. But the very best players are right on it from minute one.

And I’m not talking here about boys like Callum McGregor, who deals with expectation, who deals with being the underdog in the Champions League and guys like that. But there’s absolutely no doubt, around some of our starts, we have some players going in looking for an easy game. And that’s what we need to look at.

Is it a consequence of being so far ahead?

RODGERS: It can’t be. I cannot use that as an excuse. I can’t use that as an excuse and maybe thought, when we lost the game there on the 2nd of January, okay, 16 points, I can look at that or whatever it was.

But no, it’s happened too many times. So like I say, there’s a fantastic group of players, good guys, who this year in the main have been very, very good. But I don’t like when I see this here.

And for me, it’s just happened too many times.

I remember you saying one time up here, Brendan, you were as angry as you’ve ever been and you won 3-1 that day. I’m not sensing anger today, but…

RODGERS: There’s definitely anger. I’m trying to control it. I look at my own self first and foremost. I’m proud of my career and how I teach players and how I inspire them and how I motivate them.

The first look, I look at myself. Am I doing the very best job I possibly can to inspire these and motivate these to get over the line? So that’s my first look. But I just think there’s a comfort there I don’t like, and it doesn’t matter if you’re 13 points or 3 points.

It’s not enough. We have to be much better than what we were in our ambition in the game.

The quality you’re talking about, is that something you can instil into players, or does it have to come from within to have that drive to keep going even though you’re so far ahead?

RODGERS: Yeah, it comes from within. It comes from within. My experience in managing many, many games and that’s why the top players, like I say, like Callum and James Forrest and these guys, they never look for an easy game. Ever.

Their ambition or whatever level they’re playing for this club, they go into the game and it’s not an easy game they’re looking for. They know the expectation and they know the desire. So that there, ambition and desire, come from within.

But like I say, I have to look at myself with it as well and really analyse, am I giving them that bit that’s needed at this point? As I said, my intention always when I was here and come to the point is to sprint over the line and I’ve done that before and I know what it looks like, but I don’t like that side of it in this team because for Celtic, it’s winning the best way you possibly can. Not just chugging your way over the line. So we have no excuse.

We have no excuse. It’s not about tiredness. It’s not about the pitch. St Johnstone have done great. They deserve a huge amount of credit. My concern is for Celtic and for the ambition of the team and the mentality and the progress of the team. These are interesting games for me to analyse.

Is there a wee concern about the form of some of the players at the moment? Is that also taken away from the mentality? Is it just form in general?

RODGERS: I think that is part of it. We have players that are not used to playing so many games and I think you see a bit of tiredness, a bit of fatigue setting in but that’s all part of being a Celtic player.

You’ve got to go deep in competitions. You’ve got to have an expectation on you. Very few times you’re going to be the underdog.

It’s easy being the underdog but at Celtic there’s expectation there. For some after a long season it can be tiring but you have to deal with that. But you’re not tired after 5-10 minutes of a game.

So when you’re out there and it’s happened to the way it has, it’s happened here, it’s happened at Rangers, it’s happened at a few times, there’s no tiredness there. That’s mentality. So that’s something that I need to fix.

Is it dangerous? The title is such a strong position but there’s also a Scottish Cup to win as well. It sounds like that mentality is dangerous at this stage when there’s still work to be done.

RODGERS: I don’t threaten the players. The players have been brilliant for me this season and like I said I don’t like us to just get over the line. They’ve been brilliant but this here side of it I don’t like. We haven’t won the league yet.

Yes, we’re 13 points clear, we’ve got six games to go but there’s still a lot of work to do. My feeling is, and this is what I said before the game, top teams, they have talent, they have a system and they have a spirit and an ambition to win. The third one has been a wee bit ropey for us.

We clearly have talent, we have a system and structure you see in the second half and other games where it works really well. But before any of that there has to be a desire and a mentality. A couple of times just a little bit timid and that’s one of the big pitfalls to succeed for me. You just can’t be timid.

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🍀 “I want to give the credit to St Johnstone… their fight was better than ours”
Brendan Rodgers says he’s learned how his players deal with expectations after the defeat at McDiarmid Park ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/bz8KLxJip6
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) April 6, 2025