Brendan Rodgers likes to get his hands dirty during Celtic training.
It’s something we’ve covered already this summer. Hoops training will be different under Rodgers, in comparison to last season.
“[The coaches] implement the vision and how I want to work,” he explained last week. “They do amazing work. Then you’ll see, from time to time, I go in and impose that way of working as well, tidy up some of the details.”
Evidence of Rodgers getting involved was clear on Friday when Celtic posted some footage of training at Gamba Osaka’s Panasonic Stadium. (Celtic Instagram stories)
There was virtually no noise inside the 40,000 arena so Rodgers’ voice could be heard, albeit with a fair amount of echo.
As his players watched him intently during a shape drill, he explained: “So the ball comes in.
“We can either set it or we can turn. Now we have runs,” as he turned away from youngster Ben McPherson who was marking him.
“Now we have runs. Now we have runs. Get forward. Now it’s just about picking the pass. Okay, back to Joe [Hart]”.
It was clear evidence of Rodgers explaining the way he wants his team to play, with real emphasis on players getting forward to score goals.
Unlike under previous management, where coaches would have been trusted to put the message across, Rodgers is keen to do it himself. That’s not to say that there was anything wrong with last season, it’s just a different style.
Along with the obvious fitness side of things, this is the kind of stuff Celtic will have been working on in Japan.
It’s going to be a treat when it all comes together for real.
In other news, Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi was in front of the media in Japan on Friday
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