BREN SAYS IGNORE ‘EM
BETFRED CUP FINAL
From Back Page way following Wednesday’s Euro horror show in Paris.
Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton was among the critics, pundits Kris Boyd and Kris Commons had a pop at the game plan while the English media put the boot in following the 7-1 pounding in Paris.
London-based radio station TalkSport even had a poll to ask punters if Rodgers should resign after the humbling defeat.
But the noise fell on deaf ears as the Celtic boss said his critics are not committed to any cause – while his side will always have the courage of their convictions.
Rodgers, who is looking to get his hands on the Betfred Cup tomorrow, said: “When you try to have balls to play, you’re always going to be open to criticism. I’m here to do the best for Celtic and I’ll do what I think is best for the club.
“Hopefully up until this point it has been okay. I’ll continue to work that way, to improve the club.
“I would like to think the players have improved both individually and as a team.
“They’ve shown courage to go and play. Of course 7-1, no one wants that. It opens us to ridicule from people who either don’t watch the game or just look at the result.
“But I can’t affect that. When you have an attacking philosophy people think you don’t necessarily work on defending.
“Fundamentally we defend very well, in terms of how we press and the aggression we have. But you also have to respect we’ve come from Ross County to play away at PSG.
“It’s something our players, unfortunately, are not used to – that speed.”
Rodgers insisted the detractors won’t leave a dent as the pundits don’t have the same commitment to the game as him.
He said: “I’ve learned just to not listen. The more experienced I get, I listen a lot less. After the game my focus was on just making sure the players were okay.
“I’m not on social media and I don’t read much of the press. I have not actually seen one letter or word that has been spoken because it’s normally by people who don’t have any commitment to anything.
“So they speak, they talk, they get paid, obviously, for an opinion, but I haven’t seen one word of it. It doesn’t bother me.
“I don’t listen to the phone-ins. It’s all about the narrative and confirming their bias. It might be a bias towards a player or a even manager.
“Nir Bitton was brilliant against Bayern but there’s not too many singing his praises. But if he doesn’t play it’s confirmation we need a centre-half. I don’t know how many we need, we’ve got a load of them.
“You tend not to worry as much. Critics will be asking me about a system against Aberdeen they hadn’t seen before. But we’ve been playing it for over a year.”
Rodgers says there will be no Champions League hangover at Hampden tomorrow as his side look to secure the first trophy of the season.
He said: “I haven’t had to lift them. We’ve created a culture here that if you lose a game you reflect on it and then move on.”
Meanwhile, Mikael Lustig and Nir Bitton are both injury doubts for the game.
Rodgers said: “We will assess them over the next 24 hours and give them a chance to make it.” THERE was a cracking twist in the Christmas tale as Celtic unveiled their festive advert as couple of days after PSG left the Hoops feeling no’ well more than Noel. The promo had Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong in the cockpit of a plane, Mikael Lustig as a trolley dolly and Craig Gordon as a phototaking steward. But at the end there was the big reveal of Brendan Rodgers at the wheel of a Citylink coach pulling in to Parkhead. Talk about perfect timing. The Hoops boss was happy to get into the festive spirit by taking the driving seat for the ad. But there’s no way he’s going to park the bus on the pitch despite shipping seven on the banks of the Seine. Rodgers smiled at the irony as he said: “I would’ve needed a fleet of them over there! “It was brilliant fun doing the video. The team at the stadium do it brilliantly. They put a lot of time and effort into it.” Rodgers loved the advert but won’t change his philosophy. This coach is not for turning. He said: “No. I don’t need to justify to anyone how we play as long as the players want to play that way. We are defensively very strong. Our first and foremost thought is to defend. “People have asked if I’d have done anything different. But we were playing a back five. We had four midfielders and one up front. “What do they want us to play? Seven at the back, two in midfield and one up front? Or do they want me to be camped in around the box and lose 4-0? No chance. “Of course we will always analyse it and think we could have defended better. “But don’t start asking me to do something different. We did exactly the same against Bayern Munich and the narrative for that game was we actually did really well and it was justified by how we played. “We play how we play – which is firstly to defend aggressively with real commitment. “That is what we did. You have to realise that may not be enough at the high level we play at. I won’t worry about it. We are going to try and improve and do better.” Rodgers’s view of the Parc des Princes pain game hasn’t changed since the final whistle. He said: “I live in the reality. We played the game and of course the score wasn’t what we wanted. But my feeling after