WOUNDED ANIMAL
Rodgers warning Hearts his men are at their best when they are suffering
BRENDAN RODGERS reckons Hearts shouldn’t be rubbing their hands too excitedly at the prospect of kicking the Hoops while they’re down. Because he’s seen more than enough proof over the last three seasons of this special group’s ability to bounce back quickly – and usually in style. As much as their defensive frailties have been exposed on the European stage - as they were in the 2-0 defeat to RB Leipzig on Thursday – Celtic have made a habit of flexing their muscles when they have looked vulnerable. Rodgers said: “If there’s one thing about this group’s mentality which you can never question it’s how they respond to setbacks.
“If you look at my time here, we lost at home to Borussia Monchengladbach in my first season and didn’t play so well. But then we were outstanding against Rangers in the League Cup semi-final the following weekend and went through.
“Then we lost at home to Barcelona immediately before we played Aberdeen in the final and produced one of the best performances since I came at Hampden.
“Last year we didn’t play well away to Bayern Munich (losing 3-0) and had a tough semi-final against Hibs, which we won 4-2.
“Before last year’s final we lost 7-1 away to Paris St Germain but we bounced back to play well and beat Motherwell on the Sunday so I have no doubts about the mentality of the team.
“We’ll come away and look at it [Leipzig] but we’ll always look forward to the next game and that’s always served us well. I would expect us to respond and play well this weekend.”
Rodgers, meanwhile, blasted social media “tittle tattle” that claimed anguished Leigh Griffiths has gone AWOL from Celtic.
The Hoops boss shrugged off rumours the striker (left) has been missing from the club’s training ground since Monday.
Rodgers said: “It’s all social media. I spoke to Leigh when we trained at Murrayfield to check in how he was. He’s been ill so he’s been kept away from the squad.
“He has been connecting every day with our head physio and he probably gets about 20 messages a day off him, so there’s no chance you’re not connecting with Leigh.
“We just want to get him fit and back into the squad again. here’s always a bit of tittle-tattle which runs and takes its own life with these stories.”