Silence can be a death sentence for a player. You can’t not talk to him
SAYS BRENDAN RODGERS
SELF-BELIEF shone from Moussa Dembele’s 87th-minute winner in last season’s Betfred Cup semi-final. Running on to a low cross from Leigh Griffiths, his instinctive back-heel flick nutmegged both Rangers defender Rob Kiernan and goalkeeper Matt Gilks to put Celtic through.
It was an impudent indicator of a striker surfing the crest of a wave, one of 12 goals the young Frenchman netted in the space of 13 games. Dembele’s stock was surging skywards in both domestic football and in the Champions League. Predictions about his future price tag followed a similar trajectory. He would end the season with 32 goals, but the hamstring injury that kept him out of the Scottish Cup Final began a period of frustration.
The former Fulham striker suffered a recurrence of the problem in late July and has since been carefully nurtured towards peak fitness.
With Griffiths shining in his absence, Dembele has scored just once — against Ross County last month — since March 5.
This lunchtime brings a return to the last four of the Betfred Cup for Celtic, when they face Hibernian at Hampden. It is also a point when Brendan Rodgers detects that Dembele is reconnecting with the power witnessed so frequently last term.
The Parkhead manager has maintained an open line of dialogue throughout the striker’s difficulties of the past six months. Indeed, Rodgers views those discussions as an essential aspect of Dembele’s recovery.
Frustration can sometimes develop into something more corrosive if a player is left to ponder why they are not being directly restored to their previous prominence. Instead, Rodgers believes his counselling has been met with a mature attitude from the 21-year-old.
‘With Moussa, it’s about recognising where he is at,’ said Rodgers. ‘He is a top talent, a fantastic player, and it’s about communication with him.
‘But Moussa gets it. That has always been my feeling with him. He knows how good a player he is but he’s also been humble with it.
‘He respects where the team is at and he knows he has to fight and work to get in there. That’s football. It’s not always an upward curve.
‘He has been unfortunate with injuries but his understanding of why he is not in the team is important. He needs to know why. Silence is a death sentence for a player.
‘You can’t not talk to him. If you live your life as a player and there is no communication, then you get in your car after training and your agent calls.
‘It will be: “Are you playing? Why not?” Then you go home and your family is asking, as well. It becomes a circus.
‘Communication stabilises emotion and you are always trying to do that with a squad. But he will get opportunities as the season pans out.’
Dembele has made two starting appearances for Celtic since his most recent comeback, augmented by back-to-back matches for the France Under-21 side earlier this month. He added a different focal point to Rodgers’ side when introduced off the bench in Wednesday evening’s 3-0 Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich.
‘I do see signs that he’s getting back to where he was last season and I’ve told him that over the last week or so,’ added Rodgers. ‘With Moussa, you notice it in his running.
‘When he came on against Dundee, his mobility and running ability was there. It was the same in his half hour against Bayern Munich. He is going to be really prominent for us in the next number of weeks.
‘I had to ease him back in after the injuries. It’s partly that and it’s partly how well the team and Leigh have been doing. He has played well and you must respect that.
‘My job is to try and manage that situation. If Leigh needs a rest or a breather, and Moussa plays, then it’s my job to decide that.’
Rodgers admits the situation is ‘role reversal’ from 12 months ago, when Griffiths had to wait for his chance while Dembele flourished in the first team.
‘Do they like that competition? I’m not sure,’ grinned Rodgers. ‘They are both good lads and Leigh has been great since he came back from his calf injury. But all strikers want to play and score goals.’
Some rotation may be necessary given a turnaround of just 63 hours following the final whistle in Munich. Granted a day off on Thursday following an early-hours return from Bavaria, the full Celtic squad could only begin preparing for Hibs in yesterday’s training session.
‘Mentally, it was about allowing them to recover and have a sleep,’ said Rodgers. ‘That’s the element you miss out on, so you have to find other ways to get your message across.
‘There’s a beauty in it as well as I don’t give the players too much time to reflect on the negative result.
‘Thankfully, domestically, it’s going well for us, but we will have a brief review of (the Munich game) and we will look more at it before we play Bayern next. That is the lever to move on.
‘You have to really let it go. There were areas where we maybe could have been better in the game and then we need to put the focus into preparing for Hibs.
‘You never dwell on the past for too long and that’s always the key to how I work.’
For Celtic, the Hampden assignment will be followed by a
Premiership trip to unbeaten Aberdeen on Wednesday evening. You could argue this five-day period represents one of the biggest threats yet to a flawless domestic record under Rodgers. Success today would make it 60 matches without a loss against Scottish opposition.
‘There are physical demands and psychological challenges as well,’ said Rodgers. ‘But my job is to prepare the players, keep them fresh, make sure the message is different in the talks.
‘You go back to the Champions League games last season and how the players had the mentality to go again after them and play well. (The record) is great, but one day it will go. After we had got to the 27th game (surpassing the Lisbon Lions’ run), I spoke to the players about the challenge of not mentally relaxing. That’s not something they do anyway, but I said: “Let’s now set a standard here that goes beyond where we are at. For the next team that wants to break it, because eventually it will go, make it as difficult as you possibly can”. ‘We haven’t really spoken on it from there. We just go into each game. But I think you can see you foster a mentality when you win. When you constantly win, it gives you the confidence to keep on that path.’ The Betfred Cup provided Rodgers with the first leg of the Treble in his debut season. The Northern Irishman does not feel that the significance of the trophy has since been diminished in any way.
‘This one is always the most important,’ he claimed. ‘I think this is a great trophy to win.
‘I felt it was a very important one for us last year, something tangible to show for our growth and work. Okay, even if we hadn’t won it last year, I felt the team was developing and improving.
‘But I think it’s great for the clubs to have a trophy so early in the season. When it is there, you obviously want to grab it.’