Brendan Rodgers discussed his reaction to Celtic’s 3-0 defeat against Rangers at Ibrox on January 2nd and how it has affected the Hoops squad in the three games since.
With Celtic comfortably beaten that day, they have bounced back with three wins from three, taking their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to 18 points, scoring nine goals and conceding just one in that time, whereas Rangers have drawn their two games since.
Rodgers discussed just how disappointed he was with his players at Ibrox when asked, ‘It’s been the ideal response since the Rangers game, hasn’t it?’
He said: (The Celtic Way), “Aye, aye. We were awful on that day. Goodness me, it was never a Celtic team playing that game.
“Nowhere near a Celtic team. Through the years, the eras of competition and that. But we know that.”
The Irishman then further reflected on how the defeat affected him personally when asked by a reporter, ‘I see you shaking your head too. Does that hurt you?’
He said: “It always does. You lose any game, but especially a Celtic-Rangers game in the manner that we did.
“But listen, it’s a learning opportunity. We know we can’t be there again. The response has been great. I think you see the commitment of the players.”
Celtic have shown their class since the Rangers game to extend their lead at the top.
The game at Ibrox will be by no means forgotten by supporters due to the convincing nature of the defeat.
However, given the Hoops have only lost two games all season, with the other coming against Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund in the same competition, the match against Philippe Clément’s side was clearly a one-off, and Celtic already look to have learned from it.
With sincere respect to them, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the result in that game was never going to be about the performance of our opponents.
It was always going to be about whether or not we showed up, and on this unusual occasion, we didn’t.
In the first time during a derby game since the new club came up from the lower divisions, this was without question our worst performance against them. We were even worse than we were in Ange’s final game against them where we also lost 3-0. But on this occasion we never strung two decent passes together.
The worst part is, as they have proven in their games since, it had absolutely NOTHING to do with them!
While they played out of their skins, we never got out of the idling stage! It wasn’t them who kept us there either! It was us!
We know and have proven time and time again, that when we play at above 50% even if they are flat out, we destroy them. We are so superior to them in every position, every way and let’s be real, just look at the gap! It’s screaming out loud!
This is a less than meciocre “the rangers” team who are doing everything they can to deflect their deficiencies by blaming everyone and everything they can think of! Sadly, Willie Collum being one of them, is only too happy to throw his own under the bus to make them happy!
We slipped up on January 2nd. But we are more likely looking towards the war than a battle!