I’m the gaffer!
BRENDAN Rodgers might have blown his top at the poor Celtic kitman at Hampden but he’s determined to keep a lid on things elsewhere right now.
Because the Hoops gaffer insists it’s time to screw on the trophy head on set the sights on silverware.
Rodgers was caught on camera before last weekend’s dramatic Scottish Cup shootout win against Aberdeen giving club stalwart Stevie Wright a telling off for talking in the ear of Paulo Bernardo.
He laughed it off at Lennoxtown yesterday but the message was clear. Rodgers is the man in charge – and the players need to listen to him.
When asked his words before the penalties, the Irishman joked: “Don’t let your kit man near them! Stevie (Wright) got a wee bit of a blast from me, didn’t he?
“Bless him. He’s a good guy, he’s Celtic daft, he’s Celtic mad, but you have got to know your place…”
For Rodgers, that is top of the pile – at his club and in the league standings.
To remain there the manager is well aware that this point of the campaign is more psychological than physical.
Rodgers has called on sports psychologists in the past in his career at Swansea, Liverpool and Celtic.
But he’s been in the game long enough to trust his own mentality methods, gathered from studying neuro-linguistic programming in his younger days and then more than 700 games in the dugout.
Rodgers said:“I think this is the period where you’ve got to get your trophy head on. You’ve got to get focused on what it takes to become a champion. The players here are well-versed in that.
“They understand the mindset, they understand the psychological traits needed at this stage.
Psychological
“Physically, you’ve done a lot of your work. There may be one or two players looking to get back in or up to speed, but in general, it’s all psychological now.
“This is the part of the season where this team has been very good, and this club has been exceptional.
“The psychology of football is always there, in particular this stage.
“It’s just making sure the players are calm, they’re prepared and there’s clarity around their job.
“We don’t have anyone coming in externally or anything like that, just a calmness around the environment.
“Sometimes it’s the body language that you approach with, and the words you use with the players. I just think at this period of time it is very, very important, that aspect.”
With five league games to go, it’s about confidence, belief and momentum.
Celtic have plenty of it on the back of the cup victory last weekend – even if they 120 minutes and spot kicks put a few years on supporters.
Rodgers wants to bottle that feeling but he’s well aware there were elements of the display that can’t be repeated
He said: “I think it was a really good feeling to get through. The standard of our performance wasn’t what I would have liked.
“There are times in life when it’s really important to overcome situations and obviously we achieved the goal, which was to get to the final.
“But we also had to overcome lots within the game. So the players did absolutely brilliantly to get through that and show that nerve and mindset at the very end.
“Now we’ve got to shift the mindset to the league and that’s where our concentration is.”
Rodgers hinted there might be more sightings of 32-year-old
James Forrest in the coming weeks when big game players will be needed to produce.