Brendan Rodgers on what he’s never interested in, but now wants to know after Celtic beat Kilmarnock

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Celtic are well on course to defend their Scottish Cup crown.

On Saturday evening, Celtic beat Kilmarnock 2-1 to, not only put their name into the hat for the next round, but keep up the hopes of winning the Treble this season.

Callum McGregor opened the scoring with a brilliant driving effort from the edge of the box and the home side should have added to the scoreline.

But the Parkhead faithful witnessed the Celtic players be wasteful in front of goal, and in the end, concede a sloppy goal to go into the break level.

Thankfully, it didn’t prove to be costly because Daizen Maeda scored the winner and also won the Match of the Match award.

After the game, Rodgers was upbeat and delighted with the win, but he wanted to know something he has never asked before.

Brendan Rodgers on Celtic’s attacking play against Kilmarnock

In the modern game, statistics and data have taken over, with every club using it to its fullest, and in some cases, overloading themselves with too much information.

One stat fans will have heard for many years now is expected goals and that measures how many goals should have been scored by the team based on the quality and difficulty of the chance, regardless of if the ball went into the back of the net or not.

Rodgers admitted that he is never interested in that kind of thing, but post-match against Killie, he was ‘interested to know what that was’, as he told Premier Sports.

“It feels very good,” responded Rodgers on progressing. “It was a game that should have been a lot more comfortable than the scoreline.

“So many really good chances. I am not sure what the expected goals (XG) is. I am not really into that side of the game, but for that, I would be interested to know what that was.

“Big credit to the players. Dominated the first half, so many chances and then we conceded from our own defensive throw-in, so you then have to react. We did that in the second half. Kept fighting. Kept working. Again, creating more chances. That wee mixture of our finishing and the keeper made some really good saves. Listen, the objective is to get through and we did that.”

What was the XG for Celtic’s win over Kilmarnock?

Celtic hit the woodwork during the game and also missed big chances from close-blank range, not including the times when the players just didn’t shoot.

Not even Derek McInnes could have argued if three goals had gone in by the break, but what do the stats actually say, as Rodgers wanted to know?

According to Footy Stats, Celtic’s XG for the match was 2.72 and Kilmarnock’s was just over one.