I’VE NO TIFF WITH GRIFF
Bren: Leigh’s out team because I’m rotating squad to handle hectic run
TWELVE months ago Leigh Griffiths was doing a turn for Celtic’s Christmas advert as the Elf on the shelf only to end up on Brendan Rodgers’s naughty list.
The striker was soon playing nice and back in the gaffer’s good books but as the temperatures have dipped once more Scotland’s star man has found himself out in the cold.
Griff has spent the last three games on the bench as an unused sub braving the elements as the Hoops sparred it out with Motherwell in the Premiership and Anderlecht in the Champions League.
The third, against his boyhood heroes Hibs at Easter Road, might just have hurt the most. From Elf on the shelf to the Elf with a skelf.
Griff has spent two seasons fighting it out with Moussa Dembele for the frontman role but now Odsonne Edouard is getting his crack in the side and the Scot has been the man to slide down the pecking order.
Unlike last year Rodgers is adamant there’s nothing to see and the Hoops boss says he is simply managing his squad and every player not in the starting side is in the same boat.
At the same time he’s not particularly concerned if Griff ’s bottom lip was petted at missing out on a run in Leith.
When asked if he had a huffing striker on his hands Rodgers said: “I don’t know. You would need to ask him.
“I can only speak about him if you speak about every single player who doesn’t play. I respect that he’s Scottish and I respect that he plays for Scotland but if you ask me about Leigh you have to ask why Moussa Dembele or Kristoffer Ajer aren’t playing.
“Or why Erik Sviatchenko isn’t playing. There’s no story in it. I’m picking what I think is the best team.
“Odsonne is coming off a hat-trick against Motherwell where he was brilliant and performed well when he came into the team in the Champions League game.
“It’s about picking players in a good moment and it’s a long season. Leigh is a fantastic young striker for us and what I have now is three players who can contribute depending on what type of game I need to play.
“Moussa and Leigh have their qualities and Odsonne is a combination of both and I thought he did well against Hibs.”
Griffiths will need to fight as he always has but Rodgers admitted this is hardly a time to be jolly when there’s so much work to be done.
Celtic are in the middle of a nine-match run in December after a lung-busting opening half to the season battling on three fronts.
Hamilton are in Glasgow’s east end tonight and another round of shuffling might be required.
Rodgers said: “We have to utilise the squad to keep a freshness. You see some teams have played SaturdayWednesday-Saturday are now losing players through injury.
“Because it’s tough. But these
players here have been doing that since June. That’s what you have to do at a big club – you have to be at your physical and mental best as often as possible and these guys have been great.”
Rodgers has pored over Sunday’s draw at Easter Road but his opinion remains the same as it was minutes after the final whistle.
The Hoops boss famously tells players they wear the crown but after 68 games unbeaten it could be suggested it is getting pretty heavy.
Rodgers doesn’t see it that way. He’ll never see going so long without a loss as any kind of burden. He said: “No, because I have said to them that it doesn’t matter.
“I’ve reiterated that to them to forget about the record. I’ve told them, ‘You broke that games ago’.
“It’s about performance. You can’t worry about the run. Our worry is our game and we want to play better. We want to defend better.”
Rodgers is always a glass half full kind of guy. There are some who point out his side have already dropped more points this term than the whole of last season but the Parkhead gaffer insisted the previous term has to be viewed in isolation as a one-off marvel.
He said: “We had four draws last year and we have five now. I think it tells you last season we had the best season in Scottish football history and they don’t happen all the time.
“This year we have made a tremendous start and we’ve won our League Cup, we’re five clear with a game in hand and have six games until the winter break.
“We’re in a great, great place. We can be better at seeing out games but you have to give Hibs credit.
“They threw everything at it in the last 15 minutes.
“We had a real good reflection on Monday morning with all the players.
“It’s great because part of what we do, which allows them to move on, we then share that responsibility to be better for the next game.
“The story for me was simple. I thought we were very, very good up until they scored their first goal.
“Then the game becomes emotional. We lose control of our game and stop passing as crisply and cleanly as we had done. All of a sudden we concede a second goal.
“We still had chances but we could lose the game too.
“But it also really focuses on how great these players have done because it shows in the run of 68 games what can happen in a game of football that could allow us to lose a game in the last minute.
“So for them to have the resilience that they have had is great.”
It’s about picking players in a good moment and it’s a long season BRENDAN RODGERS