Brendan Rodgers points finger at Celtic players for Cup Final defeat | OneFootball

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers admitted that his players fell below the standards required in the Scottish Cup Final. Celtic missed out on a Treble after Aberdeen won on penalties after Callum McGregor and Alistair Johnston missed their spot kicks.

Speaking to BBC Sportsound after the game, Rodgers refused to single any players out but admitted that Celtic weren’t good enough on the day and that allowed Aberdeen to remain in the game.

“Our quality, our running, especially in the final third. We had a lot of the ball, but we lacked our combinations, our speed in the final third, our runs. When you play like that, and Aberdeen defend well, that made it difficult for us.

“With the greatest respect, it was more ourselves. We failed to get to the level you need to get to. We’ve played against a 5-3-2 so many times this season, scored goals against it. But you have to be slick, precise, running, and not be safe.

“There were too many times where we weren’t getting turned, we were setting the ball back. You need that personality.

“Unfortunately, that combination of not being at our level and Aberdeen being very motivated to defend, we couldn’t quite make the breakthrough.”

Rodgers’ comments are on the nose, the team lacked the tempo that they’ve shown all season. However, the substitutes at 60 minutes did little to impact the game. Engels, Idah and Kühn could have offered more in the final third if they had remained on the pitch, even if they struggled to get involved.

Celtic had chances to win the game, Arne Engels hit the woodwork as did Jefferey Schlupp but the biggest chance fell to Daizen Maeda, who broke through on goal only to be denied by Mitov. The Player of the Year has scored that chance a number of times this season and perhaps the volume of games that he’s played has taken its toll. There’s an argument that the squad was light but Jota and Reo Hatate were definitely missed.

Rodgers has spoken about adding 3-4 first team players to provide pace and power to the first team. The manager will want to get away for the summer before regrouping and starting preparations for the next campaign.