Brendan Rodgers has certainly inherited a Celtic team that is brimming with talent. From the backline to the forwards, we have quality all around the first eleven and on the bench.
It’s an unusual situation the new manager finds himself in. Rodgers himself admitted this week that whenever he takes over a team it’s generally for a rebuild and not to continue on success from the previous manager.
But this is where he is at and this is why it makes the next season that bit more exciting for the Celtic fans. And the question is, how can Rodgers take on a treble-winning team and make them even better?
The new Celtic manager was speaking about his team when he highlighted the talent of Kyogo and compared him to another striker that he had worked with closely during his time at Liverpool.
Rodgers said [The Herald], “What I see is a team where there are no real big stars.
“There are some top players – Kyogo, (Reo) Hatate, Jota, these guys. But the star really is the team. It reminds me very much of my Swansea team, how they are really synchronised in how they work and how they play.
“It was a similar sort of idea coming into Swansea. They had a decent foundation that we had to build on. I see Celtic as being very similar to that, where it’s all about the team. It’s that synchronisation that is the success.
“But I’ve seen quite a bit of Kyogo. If you look through my history: strikers who can penetrate the last line, who can receive and score goals.
“Danny Graham at Swansea was great for me. Then at Liverpool [Daniel] Sturridge and [Luis] Suarez could run in behind and penetrate. It was the same with Vardy at Leicester. Kyogo is certainly that. It’s a team who can look after the ball and play at fast speed.”
It’s interesting because 67 Hail Hail spoke just this week about how Suarez credited Rodgers for turning him into the striker he became before he moved on to Barcelona.
At 28 years old, Kyogo is unlikely to progress to that level but if Rodgers can impart the same advice as he did to Suarez then, Kyogo could become even more dangerous in Scotland and on the European scene.
I am excited to see how this team moves up a gear under Rodgers. I am also looking forward to seeing what he does with the rest of the squad and what additions he feels he can get to make that happen.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers on why he wanted to keep ‘very underrated’ coach at Celtic
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