Willie Collum calls Dundee United but blanks Brendan Rodgers

The Celtic Star

·28 de febrero de 2025

Willie Collum calls Dundee United but blanks Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers spoke to the media at Lennoxtown earlier today ahead of tomorrow evening’s match in Paisley against St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership…

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Aberdeen FC at Celtic Park, on 25th February 2025. (Picture by Mark Runnacles)

The manager talked about the away ticket allocation being restored for the Glasgow Derby and also confirmed that Greg Taylor is now a dad with his wife icing birth to their daughter earlier in the week! Congratulations to the Taylor family on their new arrival!

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Q: Brendan, how’s the squad looking heading into tomorrow’s game?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, pretty much as we’ve been. Obviously, Greg Taylor will come back into the squad. So yeah, apart from that, it’ll be the same.”

Q: It’s quite a tough venue going away to St Mirren, but a game you handled pretty well away from home at the start of the season?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, we were very good. And you have to be, because Stephen’s an outstanding coach and manager. His teams are very clear in how they play, they understand their roles, they make it really difficult for you. They press the game really well, they’re very coordinated when they haven’t got it. Then when they do, they play a direct game, they get it up, they get it wide, they get crosses in the box.

“So it really challenges you. But I felt the game earlier on in the season, we managed that aspect of it really well. You just have to do all the dirty bits of the game really well, all the stuff that doesn’t get a lot of attention. We did that really, really well. The running was hard, we counter-pressed the game well and that gave us a great foundation to play our football.”

Stephen Robinson, Head Coach of St. Mirren, reacts prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and St. Mirren at Celtic Park on January 05, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: It might be a slightly different task now than it was in August, just given the fact that the pitch maybe isn’t as in good condition, Stephen Robinson said this morning that it might be a bit of a leveller?

Brendan Rodgers: “I’m sure it will be. I’m sure it will be. But listen, we’ve gone to pitches before and they haven’t been great and we’ve played so many good football on them. So listen, it won’t be an excuse if we have to deal with the conditions. Ideally we’d all want to have really good pitches for the quality of the game. But however it is, we will deal with it.

The Brendan Rodgers Media Conference continues on the next page…

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Q: The confirmation that in the games between Celtic and Rangers for the rest of this season we’ll have away allocations, slightly bigger allocations as well than there was previously. Are you happy to see that back?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, I think everyone is. It’s a big part of the fixture. Having been involved in it with the supporters there, both home and away, and then obviously them being taken away, then it does make a difference. So yeah, I think it’s great for everyone. Great for the game, great for the spectacle of the game, and obviously ultimately for the supporters. They get the chance to see their team, which is great.”

Q: Is the hope that this is the start, essentially, that maybe it can go back to the levels it was previously? Or are you quite happy with the level it’s gone in at now in terms of numbers?

Brendan Rodgers: “Well, we just have to get supporters back in the stadiums again. That was the start point, and then hopefully it can get somewhere near to where it was before, because that always creates an amazing atmosphere.”

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Q: It’s something that you’ve spoken really passionately about before, making sure there are away fans in these fixtures. How pleased are you personally to get this done, and how much work did you do with the club behind the scenes to get this over the line?

Brendan Rodgers: “No, no, no. Listen, this is all the club. The club have dealt with it really well. Like I’ve said, I’ve always said before, this wasn’t a Celtic thing. This was something that sadly was out of our control at the beginning of it all. But thankfully now, both clubs come together, and it’s been Michael Nicholson and the people behind the scenes who have dealt with it. It’s great for us involved in the game.”

Match official Willie Collum arrives at the stadium prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and theRangers at Celtic Park on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The Brendan Rodgers Media Conference continues on the next page…

Q: On a different note, Dundee United have confirmed they got a call with Willie Collum today about the goal they got disallowed on Wednesday. Have you had any sort of communication or update from the SFA about what happened in the game against Hibs?

Brendan Rodgers: “I haven’t spoken personally to anyone in the club. We’ve obviously been dealing with that, but we try to do that in-house and deal with it from there. But I haven’t spoken to Michael today, so as far as I’m aware, we haven’t heard anything.”

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Q: In terms of the ticket story, is there a sporting element to it? Do you get an advantage having away fans locked out of your own ground? A disadvantage in contrast to when you go away? How does that affect it on the pitch?

Brendan Rodgers: “It can be more difficult for the home team without the support, the opposition supporters in, because sometimes in the game the supporters can be distracted by the away support and that takes sometimes a wee bit away from the actual football. Whereas if you’re the home team and it’s just all your supporters in, everything is focused directly on the game. But listen, football as we know is about the rivalry and there’s arguably no greater rivalry than Celtic vs Rangers in world football. There’s many great derbies of course, but this one being the exceptional one. I think it’s just good to have both sets of supporters in and I think for the game itself it always adds to the spectacle.”

Jude Bonnar of Celtic in action on his debut during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park, on 25th February 2025. Picture by Mark Runnacles

Q: Jude Bonnar came on in the 80th minute on Wednesday night there. How important is it for you to promote younger talents coming through the academies?

Brendan Rodgers: “Always, always. Every club I’ve been at, that was a big part of my development as a coach. I worked for 15-odd years in youth development, so I like to think I know it quite well. I’m passionate about young players and every club I’ve been at I’ve always played young players and put them in. So yes, it’s a nice reward for Jude. The pathway into any first team is not meant to be easy. It’s not just something that you go through your age groups. You have to earn the right to come in, but at the same time I’m always looking for the opportunity to put in young players and we have to have space for them.

Daizen Maeda celebrates scoring his second goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park, on 25th February 2025. (Picture by Mark Runnacles)

“I think that’s what’s important. So it’s nice for Jude. He’s done very well with the second team, but not only that, he’s working very, very hard, which I notice I see him in the gym a lot, doing his extra to get himself physically ready. He’s technically very good in the game. Like I said, he’s improving his physicality. He’s improving the competitive side to his game.

“Tactically, he understands how we work and for him to get that feeling of coming in. For me, what he also showed was personality, because I like my players, especially young players, to have the personality to come into the arena and play for Celtic. He showed all of that, so it should hopefully give him that bit of motivation now to push on.”

The Brendan Rodgers Media Conference continues on the next page…

Greg Taylor training ahead of the Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic on 29 January 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: How is Greg Taylor? Is he aware of what’s coming for the next weeks and months ahead?

Brendan Rodgers: “It’s like lots of things in life. Until you actually experience it, he won’t know. We’re delighted for him and Laura. They had their baby daughter, which was so nice for him. I was saying to him, my daughter turned 29 today herself and as soon as I spoke to Greg, it took me back to that moment. I said, you have to cherish every moment, because she’s 29 today and it’s just gone so fast. I said to him, make sure you enjoy it as well, because the time goes so fast as a parent. He’s obviously happy and the baby’s healthy and mum’s healthy, so it’s great news for him.”

Jeffrey Schlupp (Celtic FC) and Michael Olise (FC Bayern München) battle for the ball during the UEFA Champions League 2024 25 League Knockout Play-off Second Leg match between FC Bayern München and Celtic FC at Allianz Arena on February 18, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Silas Schueller DeFodi Images)

Q: In terms of the left-backs, Jeffrey Schlupp has come in with an immediate impact. What have you made of him? Have you talked to him about his future yet or is that too early?

Brendan Rodgers: “I’ll have a chat with Jeffrey towards the latter part of the season. It was the case of him coming in and settling and getting to understand how he plays. I think we can all see he has that Premier League physicality and quality. He’s a guy that’s a top professional. That’s why he’s been in over a decade in the Premier League, because you have to look after yourself. You’ve got to have the right qualities, not only as a player but as a person. We knew what we were bringing in. I’m really happy for him, because he’s settled into the group really well now. Now he has a feeling for how he plays and what the role is. It gives us two really strong players to finish the season in that position.”

Callum McGregor at the final whistle during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park, on 25th February 2025. Picture by Mark Runnacles

Q: How pleased are you with the kind of hunger they are showing at the moment? You look at the lead at the top of the table, you make the temptation to take the foot off the gas a wee bit, but you look at the game the other night, a goal late on, they went and got another one. Callum was just saying that they weren’t very happy with their own performance throughout the course of the game, despite winning 5-1. How does that say about the culture in that group?

Brendan Rodgers: “We’ve tried to set a standard of performance and I think the scoreline was fantastic. When you come off against one of your rivals, one of your big rivals up here and you can win 5-1 and still be not overly pleased with elements of the performance, then it shows you the standard that we demand. That’s a good thing, because you can always improve, even in a 5-1 win. That’s what we’ve spoken about. The whole point was to get to this point of the season in the best place we possibly could. We have 10 games to go, having the lead that we have, having already won a cup, having shown progress in Europe, we arrive now into this stage of the season where virtually from Saturday we’ll go into one game a week.

Yang Hyun-Jun celebrates scoring a goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park, on 25th February 2025 . Picture by Mark Runnacles

“So the freshness, the ability to train, to work on things becomes a great advantage for us and that’s all we can ask. The players have really set a top standard. It’s been relentless for the last three and a half months. In the last three months we’ve played over half a season’s games in three months. I think it’s 23 games or something we’ve played. Because of the nature of how we play and the level we want to play at, they’ve been absolutely magnificent. I can’t speak highly enough of them, but we’ve still got a big job to do. We have the advantage in the league of course, but for me it doesn’t mean anything. We have to go into every game to win and to perform at the highest level we can.”

The Brendan Rodgers Media Conference continues on the next page…

Brendan Rodgers. Hibs v Celtic. 22 February 2025.Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: I was reading about this time last year that you started to hit your peak in the best run of form. Is that the challenge, to play even better than you have been playing already this season, just to enjoy the run in as well?

Brendan Rodgers: “The whole nature is to start fast and finish strong as a top team. We started really well. Performance level, goals, clean sheets, intensity. Then we go through a period where the performances were still very good. Some were really intense, some were where we got the job done. Maybe not as intense, but that’s natural with the sheer scale of games. Now we arrive into a part of the season where we want to finish really strong.”

Callum McGregor, Hibs v Celtic. 22 February 2025.Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: Will you be able to give them some time off now that you’ve got these free midweeks that you haven’t had?

Brendan Rodgers: “There will be little recovery periods where we can recover. But we still will be working very, very hard. It gives us a chance to train to be better and train to improve. At least we have that time. It will be a mixture of recovery, but aligned with intense work.”