THE PRIDE IS MISSING

Rodgers blasts defence after poor show

CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers last night accused his dozy defenders of lacking desire and pride.

He could not disguise his frustration after another big lapse cost his team in Europe.

Rodgers and his players were in control of their Europa League play-off first-leg clash after Olivier Ntcham’s early effort gave them an advantage over FK Suduva.

But just eight days after the backline disintegration in Athens cost the club a Champions League place, Celtic’s rearguard made another howler to concede a leveller to the Lithuanians.

Rodgers insisted it just wasn’t good enough and questioned the pride and desire to keep the ball out of the net.

He said: “We seem to lack concentration. That is a problem for us. And a pride, really, in terms of defending. That is pretty clear.

“In games like this one, especially away from home, we have got to really demonstrate that hunger not to concede. It was too easy for them.

“There has to be a greater desire not to concede.

“We gave away a soft goal. That is a real, real concern now. We are not giving away many chances but we don’t defend the set-piece well.

“I think from the set-piece situations we are conceding from it’s something really that is probably the easiest thing to defend in the game. It was a basic ball into the box.

“You have to deal with that and you have to have a mentality not to concede. Too often over this early part of the season we have conceded so we need to go away and work on it, work even harder on it.”

Dedryck Boyata’s situation and absence is an obvious issue while Jozo Simunovic limped out in the second period to add to Rodgers’s problems.

But despite his disappointment and feelings that his team had let their travelling support down, he feels the overall goal of reaching the group stages is still within their grasp.

Rodgers said: “I felt for the supporters. They have come all the way out here.

“It’s a disappointing performance for them. They have seen a goal but we have to be much better.

“We made a good start but after that we came off plan a wee bit.

“We were running too much, blocking each other’s spaces and not really playing with the tempo and intensity which we want.

“It’s an away European goal, we go back next week to finish the job but as I’ve said before I look to the performance level and we weren’t quite where we would want to be.”