Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is already setting his sights on the upcoming transfer window, with plans to address what he perceives as the team’s defensive vulnerabilities.
Despite a strong performance and a clean sheet in Celtic’s victory over Hearts that extended Celtic’s lead in the Premiership, Rodgers highlighted that the opposition has had too many chances on goal throughout the season.
Following the win that moved Celtic closer to clinching their third consecutive title, Rodgers praised his team’s display but did not shy away from acknowledging the areas needing improvement.
“Joe at times does not have too much to do, he’s had a bit more to do than I’d have liked this season. We will sort that out in the summer, but here he has produced some really important moments,” he said, quoted by Football Scotland.Â
Joe Hart is set to hang up his gloves at the end of the season, and will take a break from football following that.
But Brendan Rodgers seems to acknowledge the fans’ complaints about the defence, particularly Liam Scales. It seems as if the manager shares these concerns and will be addressing the defensive partner to Cameron Carter-Vickers in the summer as a matter of priority.
Squad depth was never really in place for the return of Rodgers in the first place.
Getting player’s out of the club who are on long contracts isn’t as straightforward to move player’s out as quickly as we would like.
Plenty has been made about the standard of the recruitment of incoming players, yet without knowing how much involvement Rodgers had himself within the whole process?
The CB injury crisis early doors totally changed the potential plans for the season ahead also?
So overall it has been bit of a mess that needed addressing, which is normal enough with a change of management, but possibly a bit bigger than many expected with Rodgers dismissal of so many of Ange squad players, along with so many incoming players that don’t or won’t feature within the plans of Rodgers either?
To squad build you still should be looking to get the defensive set up sorted out first, but we never really did sufficiently imo?
Some tough decisions had to be made early doors, but over the course of this season them decisions regarding where the strengthening in squad depth is still required has become far clearer now imo?
Still think that 4 players are required within the defensive set up next season with potentially 2 keepers required imo?
The gap in standard between 1st and 2nd choice player’s in positions has been way to big for way too long also.
We still have some way to go before that’s fully addressed, but also finally addressing the 8 homegrown rule which is also a requirement within the club, which Ange had no time for addressing either?
Still think we are in a better position for next season looming than we were upon Rodgers arrival when you take into consideration just how much work was still required with squad depth imo?
Plenty will make the claim with saying it wasn’t sufficient enough over the last 2 windows?
Which is fair enough, but are we going to change the transfer structure that we are currently operating under?
With preparing to pay out on the under 5M players but only looking at the loan to buy option on the over 5M players?
If the same structure remains in place then it will remain as a guessing game to really get the standard of player to match the quality of standard that a manager is looking for with overall squad depth imo?
So it remains to be seen just how adventurous we will actually be, in addressing the amount that will be invested to address squad depth, which is still a requirement for next season imo?