Bullish Brendan takes confidence from Celtic’s hunger to succeed

CRAIG SWAN

BRENDAN RODGERS doesn’t take his comfort from the Rangers games that Celtic have dominated. He takes the majority of his confidence into Hampden tomorrow from the one where they didn’t. Rodgers goes into the Scottish Cup semi-final showdown with a sparkling derby CV since arriving last summer. Victories at Parkhead and Ibrox in the Premiership. Success at the national stadium in the League Cup semi-final. These have been highlights in a stellar and unbeaten first domestic campaign as boss. There’s just one blip. The 1-1 draw in Glasgow’s East End in March has prevented the record so far being four from four for Rodgers. In most cases, you’d expect the manager to try to forget that one. Put it out of mind. Not Rodgers. As far as he’s concerned, seeing his team perform below par and still managing to snare a draw while Rangers potentially played at their maximum is almost as much of a morale boost as the hat-trick of wins. Rodgers is too clever to say it but the rest of the footballing world can see from that afternoon six weeks ago if Celtic don’t under-perform again and play to their full power at Hampden, they will win. The fact Celtic have rarely failed to hit heights this term is also a major positive going into the crunch. And looking back to that last clash Rodgers said: “We did not play so well but should have won. We were up in the game and didn’t quite react to the second phase of a free-kick late on.

“We had an opportunity to win it but it’s okay. We can’t be perfect. We take great strength from the fact we didn’t play so well, Rangers probably played as well as they’ll play and we still drew.

“I said at the time, it was a wee reminder we need to be playing well and performing well. You can sometimes perform well and lose and I will always take that but this is a different game coming at a different moment.

“The players have been absolutely magnificent. The way they’ve approached games, their appetite to learn and to work. They have shown many times this season, in pressure moments and pressure matches they can deal with that.

“There have been so many measures and landmarks along the way and any wee setbacks that they’ve had which have been in the Champions League, they’ve bounced straight back.

“They are hungry to succeed. That’s what we’ve tried to really focus on this year. That relentless quest to improve and be better and to win.

“This is another opportunity for us to achieve in the Scottish Cup in a way we set out at the beginning of the season. We’ve had a good preparation into it, players are available and all are focused on it.

“We don’t just turn up every day and make it up. There’s a periodised programme we have for our technical and tactical work and for our physicality. I said a few weeks back we wanted to arrive into this game at optimum level and that meant availability, confidence and the nature of our game.

“That’s what we do. We can’t be any more prepared and we can’t have any more players available.”

Given the fact Rodgers has switched his team around and still been able to go 40 domestic games unbeaten has to be an ominous sign for Rangers.

But Light Blues morale is rising under new boss Pedro Caixinha. Results have improved and crucially, the Ibrox team are not as open and defensively weak as they were under Mark Warburton.

Rodgers said: “They look as if they go direct at times. Martyn Waghorn is taking long throws into the box. I noticed that.

“Pedro has come in and has his own ideas, ways of working and he wants to set them up in a slightly different way.

“They still look to play, they’re still open. But they look a little more pragmatic and not maybe so keen to play short or pass it, they’re happy to go longer.”

Tomorrow is also the third successive game against Celtic where Rangers have a new manager after Warburton and Graeme Murty.

But Rodgers doesn’t appear to care. With such an outstanding record this term, his team have no reason to change their ways to suit opponents and the gaffer won’t be doing so.

Rodgers said: “Even though this is the fifth time we’ve played them and we know a lot of the players, we still make the same study and analysis as we did the first game.

“We’re looking at the details and what we think we can exploit. It makes no difference to us. It’s just an observation from watching them but we have an identity, we have a way of playing. It doesn’t matter what system we play, the style will always be the same.”

It’s a style that has brought Celtic terrific success this term and transformed them from the stumbling outfit that lost this semi-final a year ago under Ronny Deila into swaggering champions.

The progress has been startling since that day that convinced club chiefs to axe the Norwegian and go for the ex-boss of Liverpool.

Rodgers said: “I can only really answer about the progression since I came in. Last season in that game, Rangers were high in confidence, up in the Championship and getting ready to come up.

“Celtic were in that wee phase towards the end of the season where the timing and the moment was maybe difficult for them.

“Even though Celtic didn’t play so well they could still have won the game and arguably, should have won the game.

“Rangers deserved to win it but it’s a different coach, different team, different mentality, as we’ve seen throughout the season.

“I’ve been very lucky in my career to be involved in huge games, derby games, high-profile games. But probably none better than this. It’s an incredible high you get and we hope to continue that.

“Are we ready? We’ve been ready since the first game, so no change for us.”