Gordon Strachan is the latest to hit out with the idea that Brendan Rodgers wasn’t tested enough at Celtic.
The Northern Irishman now infamously swapped Celtic Park for Leicester at the end of February. It came after seven straight domestic trophies out of seven at Parkhead. Celtic were also on course for numbers eight and nine too had Rodgers stayed.
Yet, at the end of the day, he swapped a potential treble-treble and Celtic immortality for the English Premier League.
Strachan touched on his departure in the Daily Record last night. Speaking on it, he said the following:
“Brendan was probably thinking how long he could go on playing teams on plastic pitches and against sides who couldn’t test him or his players. He had to look at that.
“I think he is probably looking at it and thinking if he went to Leicester in the summer it would only give him five weeks to work with the players before the new season starts.
“This way he gives him four or five months to look at what he has got, where he wants to go, what needs to be done.”
Rodgers had test he couldn’t pass
It’s easy to look at the seven consecutive domestic trophies and say “flawless”. But let’s not kid ourselves that his Celtic side weren’t tested on a plethora of occasions.
For example, look at his record against current interim manager Neil Lennon. Out of seven meetings with Lennon, Rodgers only managed to win three. Despite having a clearly superior budget, his side struggled against high press tactics, and this led to Celtic not even winning three consecutive away matches in a row under him this season.
Clarke was another who often had Rodgers’ number. He managed to go undefeated in four out of six games against the former Celtic manager.
Throughout the entire 2017/18 campaign, Rodgers’ Celtic couldn’t win more than three games in a row. That run went on for 14 months – ending only in a 5-0 win at Dundee on Halloween.
Sure, winning these competitions meant that it didn’t overly matter, but to say Celtic weren’t “tested” under Rodgers is a slap in the face to the likes of Lennon and Steve Clarke.
And dare we even talk about Europe? Rodgers won just two out of nine group stage matches at Parkhead in both the Champions League and Europa League.
His overall European record reads at having won 16 out of 42 matches. 18 of them ended in defeat. Six of his wins came in group stage competition and beyond.
So let’s forget this idea that Rodgers wasn’t tested. He swept the domestic trophies all right, but he had to battle plenty of tests to do so.
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