Rodgers details meticulous game preparations

Brendan Rodgers has revealed the meticulous preparations that go on behind the scenes at Celtic and what he does to prepare his players for every game.

The 43-year-old took over at the five-in-a-row champions from Ronny Deila in May and instantly brought back the feel good factor – and fans responded with over 50,000 purchasing season tickets.

In his first competitive game he endured a shock result against Lincoln Red Imps but his side have been unbeaten since and looked to be improving all the time under the former Liverpool and Swansea boss.

Rodgers revealed how he prepares his players for every game at his new club as quoted by the Scotsman and how he foresees each game.

He said:

It’s about us knowing as a staff that we have done absolutely everything for the players to gain that extra 
1 per cent. Then they don’t have any excuses. Creating that no excuse environment is very important.

It’s not homework, but the players are all given a document on the opponent. Everything is in there about the individual player they are playing against. We look at the offensive organisation of the opponent and the same defensively. We look at the different phases of transition, offensive and defensive.

Rodgers and his staff go the extra mile to not only study the opposition in great length, but also the man with the cards, the vanishing spray and control over the game.

We also study the referee. We look at the last 35 games of the ref and look at his form going into games. Does he give particular cards at a high level or not? So we study the opponent and the referee in depth. But then it is the choice of the player. It’s never forced onto them.

All of them will take away a document that will allow them to be fully 100 per cent prepared for the game. Some will read it religiously, read every letter that is on there. Some, I’m sure, will set it down after ten seconds and not look at it again. We do lots of video, individually and in team analysis and on top of that we work on the field. There is an awful lot of work being poured into them.

This lengthy preparation allows Celtic to leave no stone unturned on the field and no excuses when they come off it, and now the fans know it as well.

Rodgers has used his network of contacts in England to secure the services of Moussa Dembele for a compensation fee, as well as Kolo Toure on a free transfer and most recently Scott Sinclair for a fee of around £3 million.

Celtic will look to continue their winning run on Wednesday when they face Motherwell in the last-16 of the League Cup at Paradise.