“Nowhere near”… Brendan Rodgers aims sharp criticism at Celtic starters vs Queen’s Park

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Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers wasn’t happy with certain aspects of the team’s performance against Queen’s Park on Wednesday night.

The Bhoys ran out 6-4 winners thanks to a hat-trick from Kyogo Furuhahsi and goals from Matt O’Riley, Hyeongyu Oh and Francis Turley.

Matches at this stage of pre-season mean little but Rodgers still wants to see full commitment from his players in the build-up to competitive action kicking off at the start of August.

For the manager, his group of starters weren’t quite at the levels he was expecting, specifically calling out the lack of intensity in their pressing game.

Rodgers will now be aiming to drill into his players the importance of effort even in pre-season over the coming weeks with a ramp-up in the quality of opposition coming.

Brendan Rodgers on Celtic win over Queen’s Park

Speaking to Celtic TV, the manager said: “It is about fitness but there were lots of elements of the first-half that I wasn’t happy with, especially with some of the guys that should understand the game better. Our pressing was nowhere near the level of what I would expect, and that’s what I said at half-time.

“The first 15 minutes we pressed the game better than what we did in all of the 45 minutes. And then that continued in the second half.

“You expect some little mistakes and things can happen in the game but overall, you see that we still have a long, long way to go in the pressing side of our game. There were some really pleasing moments in the game as well.”

Stiffer tests coming for Celtic

Rodgers is setting a standard with his comments and he’s right to call out a dip in intensity even at this stage of the summer.

The Bhoys will continue to prepare at Lennoxtown with more training over the next six days then travel to the USA to take on three games that will require much more sustained performances.

DC United are first up before Manchester City and Chelsea provide the stiffest challenge of the summer.

Concentration and application of pressing will need to be at far higher levels to take on those foes, albeit the matches are still about increasing fitness and sharpness across the entire squad.