Today marks the day where Celtic get the second part of their defence of the treble underway.
Brendan Rodgers will be keen to get his hands on the league cup once again as it was the trophy that set him, and Celtic, on course for that Incredible Invincibles Treble season. And how much would we like to see a repeat of that again?
Celtic have an excellent record against the Ayrshire club. Since the turn of the century, we have lost just six fixtures against Kilmarnock. Five in the league and the other was, ironically, in the League Cup final back in March 2012.
During Brendan Rodgers’ first tenure as the Celtic manager, Rodgers only lost once against the Rugby Park side. In fact, Celtic’s loss to Kilmarnock came just before Rodgers departed for Leicester City in February 2018. That defeat started a run of four winless games against Killie until Celtic put that right with a 5-1 win in December 2018.
Since that day, Celtic have remained unbeaten against Kilmarnock, winning all but one of the fixtures over the last five years. The 1-1 draw in match day two of season 2020/21 being the only blot in that record.
In fact, Rodgers’ record against McInnes when he was manager at Aberdeen was also excellent. Rodgers tasted defeat just once in the 1-0 loss on Trophy Day in May 2018.
But that won’t matter to Brendan Rodgers today. The Celtic boss has already been at pains this season to tell us that past victories and achievements, including last season’s historic treble, make no difference to him.
And he has been a man of his word. Dropping Reo Hatate for David Turnbull in the opening two games of this season has already shown that Rodgers does not live on past glories.
He focuses on the here and now and that is exactly how he’ll approach the fixture today. Rodgers will pick a team that he believes will win today’s tie. No notice will be taken of who played well in the 2-0 semi-final win at Hampden last year or the 4-1 win at Rugby Park where Celtic were rampant in 25 first-half minutes last season.
All attention will be on the starting lineup for today’s clash at Rugby Park. Cup football is unpredictable. Rodgers will undoubtedly pick his strongest team for the 3pm kick-off as the Celtic fans will be looking forward to seeing their team continue their winning start to the season.
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