During both of his tenures at Celtic, Rodgers has proven he can be ruthless. Now is the time to be ruthless again
Eric Knott 
Craig Williamson - SNS Group/SNS Group/Getty Images
Celtic have some hard lessons to learn from Thursday’s Glasgow derby defeat…
Sometimes other people see what you fail to see.
Or choose not to see, depending on your perspective.
One of the main reasons we lost at Ibrox on Thursday was because the collective failed to show up.
The collective encompasses all playing staff, inclusive of the coaching team.
In my view, the only player to achieve pass marks was Cameron Carter-Vickers.
He appeared to be the only Celtic player switched on and tuned in to the danger around him.
However, he is but one, and he could not stop the onslaught that ensued all by himself.
This is what I saw.
What I also witnessed was two players who seemed entirely out of their depth in a fixture they have waltzed through in the past.
To that end, the Celtic coaching team failed them.
The coaching team failed Liam Scales and Reo Hatate because they failed to heed the warning signs regarding these players up to this point.
Of which there have been many.
Liam Scales got away with one in the League Cup final.
On another day, the Ibrox side would have been awarded that penalty, but fate spared Scales that day.
It did NOT spare him on Thursday.
I think it’s fair to say that Liam Scales put in one of his most abject performances in a Celtic jersey since he joined the club.
It didn’t help that he chose the wrong place and the wrong time to put in that performance.
As a Celtic player, sometimes you live and die by your decisions at Ibrox.
His performance was a far cry from the day he was thrown in at the deep end at Ibrox in September 2023, due to the squad being decimated with injuries.
Having just returned from his loan spell at Aberdeen, nobody, not even Scales himself, expected he’d find himself in the starting line up.
If that was his coming of age as a Celtic player, and let’s be fair here, he grasped his opportunity with both hands, then yesterday was where he came full circle.
Look, I’m Irish, I want to see every Irish player flourish, no matter where he plays.
I want both Liam Scales and Adam Idah to be successful at Celtic.
But when performances like yesterday’s, which come to the detriment of our overall performance, are happening, then it’s time to for the coaching team to take stock.
Liam Scales needs a break from the first team.
He needs that break so he can work on his ball distribution.
So that he can learn to stop walking himself into trouble, as he did so often on Thursday.
This is where Brendan Rodgers needs to be ruthless.
Whatever Auston Trusty did wrong in the first half of the League Cup final, he has paid the price, enduring an extended spell on the bench.
Now, I know hindsight is a fool’s version of foresight, but based on how Scales performed on Thursday, surely Trusty would have been a better option?
Why did we pay £5.5 million for him?
To be fair, I don’t think he really put a foot wrong in all of his performances up until the League Cup final.
Brendan Rodgers’ ruthless streak needs to be evident tomorrow when we take to the field against St. Mirren.
To that end, Auston Trusty needs to start alongside CCV.
Anything else, and as I said earlier, the coaching team are failing the players.
If Scales starts tomorrow, then I would be concerned.
Because that would indicate no lessons are being learned by the coaching team.
And they would also be failing Scales by playing him.
I discussed Reo Hatate in Thursday evening’s article after the match.
I’m not going to go into it in detail today.
It’s been well covered by James over on The Celtic Blog.
No doubt, we’ll go into in detail on our next Podcast.
It’s been a point of discussion almost every week since we started.
But as we’ve both said, Brendan Rodgers has to realise his moments of brilliance, which are now as rare as hen’s teeth, are not worth the downside to his game.
Loose passing, poor balls, reaching nobody in particular, and being dispossessed easily with unerring regularity.
All of which were on display for everyone to see on Thursday.
Except it seems, Brendan Rodgers.
Rodgers failed both players, and the team, by allowing Scales and Hatate to continue in the second half.
He bears all of the criticism for that.
And at this point in time, if anybody knows that, Rodgers does.
That’s why, starting tomorrow, he has to be ruthless, which we all know he’s very capable of.
Albeit selectively, at times.
That’s what needs change.
Rodgers’ stubborn insistence in sticking with certain players, who to be fair, have delivered in the past, but aren’t now, needs to be parked.
For the good of the team.
Callum McGregor spoke eloquently yesterday about how we need to learn from what happened on Thursday.
No fuss, no moaning about who should, or shouldn’t have been sent off.
No complaints about the performance of the referee.
Nor was there any excuses for the poor performance.
You would hope his sentiments are coming from his discussions with the Celtic manager.
Starting tomorrow, both the manager and the players need to rediscover their ruthless streak.
We need a statement win against St. Mirren to prove Thursday was a once off.
In order for that to happen, the correct personnel need to be out on the park.
If that includes Reo Hatate and Liam Scales, the we have learned nothing at all from Thursday.
I will worry about that particular scenario if it crops up.
And I’ll discuss it in depth.
The ideal scenario tomorrow is a high scoring win for us, and the Ibrox side drops more points at Easter Road.
Stranger things have been known to happen.
But an in form Hibs side, with four wins and two draws in their last six games, might just burst their bubble.
As is always the case with the Ibrox side, another mirage has been created.
It will eventually disappear, like it always does.
And Celtic will march on relentlessly.
Like they always do.
I agree that CCV was the only one to get pass marks at Ibrox. The result hurt but it’s done and we are still 11 points clear. What disappoints most is that, on the day, we were outfought and outthought.
They used the same mid-block pressing tactics as in the League Cup final, and it rattled us. We hardly made a pass all game.
We should have learned from the final and expected this approach. Let’s hope the lesson has been learned for next time
While you are on the subject, when was the last time mcgregor won a tackle, won a ball in the air, made a telling pass forward. All he does is get the ball of ccv and pass it straight back to him umpteen times and when he looses the ball in midfield he can’t chase back cos he has no pace so maybe give him a rest because he has been doing this for a while. HH
Taylor was pish an all. 5 mins after Scales loose pass cost the first, Taylor did a carbon copy but got lucky. I was furious at the end of the summer transfer window going into a new season with these 2 being our left side of defence again. We we’re lucky the CL draw was kind to us this year or we’d be found out again.
I would add kyogo to that as well, he Is a shadow of the player who came in under ange . I would give idah a run now .
So many expert managers making comments of negativity.
Where were you when the celebrations were going on when we won the league cup? At home drinking tea with mummy wiping your erses? Get a grip. We lost a football game as we do every season but we will rise again as we always have. The management and players will be hurting as much as we are but real supporters support Celtic through good and bad. We are not sevco or maybe some of you are at heart
We never learned from the cup final. Rangers have worked out how to play against us and we decided to play the exact same at Ibrox. Scales, Taylor, Hatate should all have been hooked at half time no it’s or buts they were having a shocker. Totally agree with the above about Callum McGregor he is not passing forward it’s time for him to either start passing the ball forward or sit on the bench and give someone else the chance.
WELL SAID DAN… 🍀🍀🍀
The whole team failed to do their jobs.
Rodgers and coaches are to rigid with style and tactics.
Pass pass pass gives possession but does not create chance chance chance, forwards are deprived of service.
Until the mgr/coaches change their stubborn methods, then extremely limited chances will be created.
I watched a team who did not seem interested against Rangers, I could see discontent between players.
McGregor is fast becoming past his best before date, similar to Scott Brown was but he was kept to long.
Time to play another in McGregors place.
I was disappointed with McCowan stopping his run which led to the 3rd, maybe he wouldn’t have made a difference, but a player snarling after you can be a distraction to the attacker.
All in I didn’t see a team wanting to win at ibrox, what was the reason behind such a poor performance.
We were chased down, bullied in possession, gave away nearly every ball, lost any tackles, 1 shot on target.
So it’s over to Rodgers and the laptop lackies to set a team up to win, not fail.
I have seen better amateur teams set up to win.
I’d also dump the huddle, anything that could be said there should already be discussed pre match.
4-3-3, same old same old, midfield three being over-run but no attempt to change to 4-4-2 or some such and minimise space, midfield all over the place.
Been saying the same thing as above about McGregor, no pace, 90%+ passes go backwards, too much unnecessary possession.
And too much condensing play in the opposition half and restricting space for strikers. If I’m an opposition manager and the two central defenders have the majority of the ball and neither can shoot or create a goal scoring opportunity, then I’m happy.
The only way we could lose to the h.ns was a collective failure of our players, we win as a team , we lose as a team . Scales has been one of our best players in his previous games against h.ns . If he had conceded a pen, it would have been another honest mistake, they didn’t score their last league cup pen . Who’s to say they would have scored this season . BR’s record against them was 2nd to none . He & team is entitled to lose the odd game . Only one domestic invincible in SPL & Scotland
Let’s be very honest here. Liam Scales is not good enough at this level. You can say the same for Adam Idah. Ridiculous money spent on him. If we sold him we would get about 2 million at most. Reo Hatate is an enigma hopeless and brilliant. Calum Mc Gregor is playing more defensively than he would want but does so for the team. His natural place is more forward. Kyogo has been messed up by the change in style under the new management with the ball not coming across the goal as before but a more centralized attacking style used. He is not getting the service he used to. Luke Mc Cowan was an utter waste of space. Perhaps Nicholas Kuhn will go and Jota will replace him. Perhaps the loyal and honest Greg Taylor will go and be replaced by Tierney who if fit will help the team. The only problem is , that with Tierney it is a big IF
As much as Thursday’s performance & result was disappointing & embarrassing, especially coming against one of the poorest Rangers teams l have ever seen in my 61 years. I think the reaction is justified. Yes, Brendan should have been BIG enough to have made the changes at half time but, he could have taken off anyone of 9 underperforming players. Celtic players need to watch the game over & over again & understand that type of performance can never happen again this season.
Roger’s and the coaching team same football every week playing ping pong vickers to scales to mcgregor back to scales keeper to vickors any manager knows what to do against this players aren’t physical enough how many times have scales to slow to pass the ball we can’t score from set pieces we can’t defend them Roger’s and coaches need to look at this