Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has been giving his reaction to Saturday’s 2-0 win over Livingston in the Scottish Premiership.
The pressure was on the Bhoys to deliver a victory today after successive league defeats against Kilmarnock and Hearts. Everyone was intrigued to see whether the Celtic boss could get a reaction out of his players.
The team started with a lot of energy and intent, but towards the end of the first half, some of the worrying aspects of recent performances reared their head again.
However, Celtic broke the deadlock just seconds into the second half through Kyogo Furuhashi and gave themselves a cushion minutes later thanks to a Liam Scales header.
Overall it was a comfortable victory and Rodgers was understandably happy in his post-match interview with BBC Radio Scotland, given all the chatter in the build-up.
Brendan Rodgers delivers verdict on Celtic win over Livingston
The Celtic boss said: “It was a much better performance and result, of course. After two disappointing results, you have to react. It felt strange as a Celtic manager to be in that position but you have to respond and do your talking on the pitch.
“I think the players did that really well today and probably didn’t get the goals that they deserved. But from the off you could see the intensity and tempo was much better.
“Today could have been really difficult, but the players deserve huge credit to play against a team camped in. We had to be bright and creative in our play to break them down. We did that but just couldn’t score more goals.
“We’ve got three big games coming up, but none more so than the next one. We had to get back on track so a clean sheet, lots of opportunities, the two goals and taking the three points – we can now learn from the two performances where we didn’t perform and get a result, we put that right today and now we get ready for Dundee.”
There’s no sense in reading too much into today and what it means for the season as a whole – Livingston are a poor team and look likely to be relegated.
However, the three points were a necessity and it’s an important first step toward getting back to form that pleases supporters on a regular basis.
Celtic now have massive matches against Dundee, Rangers and St Mirren over the next ten days before a much-needed winter break.
If the Bhoys can head into that period unscathed then everyone can regroup, key players will be back from injury and Rodgers can start to bring in his desired profile of player from the transfer market.
In other news, Celtic send scouts to watch £3m Europa League midfielder.
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