Rodgers acknowledges lack of creativity after Killie defeat

Brendan Rodgers has admitted that his Celtic side lacked a creative edge after suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Kilmarnock at Rugby Park earlier today.

The Hoops failed to pose any real threat to Steve Clarke’s men and paid the price as former West Brom midfielder Yousouff Mulumbu fired the home side in front from close range with twenty minutes to go.

It is Rodgers’ second domestic loss since taking over as manager in May 2016.

The Irishman reflected on the result and spoke to the media after the game:

We weren’t creative enough with the ball. It was a disappointing day for us and we’ve not had too many of them.

I respect the surface is dreadful, and everything else around that, but we weren’t good enough in terms of our creativity today and in terms of the talent we had on the pitch.

We’ve won the three of our games here before but when you don’t create so many chances it’s never really a good game of football.

He also spoke about losing centre-back’s Dedryck Boyata and Kristoffer Ajer early on to injury:

When you lose two out of your back three then it disrupts things. I don’t think that’s an excuse.

Of course those guys have been perfect in the last number of weeks in terms of how we’ve played. It can be an issue when you pull up with a groin and an ankle. The guys complained about it but we know the pitch we are playing on so we have to cope with it.

The injuries are unfortunate but I’ll see where we’re at. I don’t know how serious the injuries are as of yet. We just need to wait and see. Simunovic is fit but he struggles on the astro. He’ll be ready for next week though.

The champions still remain eight points clear of second-place Aberdeen.

Rodgers’ men face Partick Thistle next weekend before coming up against Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League last-32 a week on Thursday.

With injury worries potentially hitting the squad, Rodgers will have to make some alterations to keep his squad fresh and match-fit.