I’M TO BLAME

Rodgers takes responsibility for slow start

BRENDAN RoDgERs has shouldered the blame for Celtic’s poorest start to a league season in 20 years.

Defeats to Hearts and, most recently, Kilmarnock have left the scottish champions sixth in the Premiership, six points adrift of the summit.

It has led to some questioning the harmony in the squad, with Killie striker Kris Boyd suggesting there was a split in the dressing room.

Rodgers was dismissive of both Boyd and his claims yesterday — and was backed up by Parkhead

winger Lewis Morgan, who labelled the comments as ‘nonsense’. However, Rodgers did acknowledge that a wage bill of almost £60million a year should deliver more value for money — and the Northern Irishman took responsibility for chopping and changing his starting line-up for the defeats at Tynecastle and Rugby Park.

Calling for calm ahead of tonight’s Betfred Cup quarter-final against st Johnstone in Perth, the Celtic boss said: ‘We did our best to lose the game at the weekend and there is always a disappointment.

‘We have a stable blueprint here of how we win games.

‘In the last couple of years, when we work to that blueprint, we can win, and win well.

‘At this moment in time, there has been a period when it has not worked but I take responsibility at the weekend, 100 per cent.

‘If I analyse the two games I have lost in the league, it probably comes on the number of changes I made thinking ahead to a game and looking to change the dynamic at the weekend.

‘I take responsibility for that, but there have also been periods we have played well.

‘Has it been to the standards we set a couple of years ago? Not quite, but you have to stay calm.

‘It is still very early on in the season. We have played six games and there are another 32 to go in terms of the league.

‘We will get better and it is my responsibility to ensure we do.’

With the blame game in full swing, Kilmarnock striker Boyd used his guest slot on Radio scotland to claim there is ‘a divide in the dresssing room’, adding olivier Ntcham has not been the same player since Porto’s interest in signing the midfielder for £14m was kicked out.

‘Kris is probably best suited trying to get himself into the Kilmarnock team to get playing and we will concentrate on our own job in here,’ responded Rodgers.

A summer of unrest saw the Celtic manager question the failure to get transfers over the line, star striker Moussa Dembele leave for Lyon on deadline day with no replacement and defender Dedryck Boyata down tools after being denied a move to Fulham.

‘There is no doubt the summer was complicated for us on and off the pitch,’ added Rodgers. ‘But we are very much unified.

‘I think you saw that when Dedryck came back (against Hamilton). Everyone on the field ran to him.’

Morgan was equally dismissive of Boyd’s claims of a divide between French-speaking players and the others, saying: ‘That’s someone outwith the club who wouldn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on inside the building. That’s definitely not true.

‘You can only look at what we’ve achieved over the last couple of years. That doesn’t come without a close team. so that’s something I can rule out.

‘It is a really close-knit dressing room and everyone gets on with each other. That’s nonsense.’

Defender Filip Benkovic remains a doubt for McDiarmid Park with an Achilles problem, with Kristoffer Ajer set to return to central defence.

Pointing to the financial gulf at European level after thumping Champions League defeats to the likes of Barcelona and Paris saint-germain, Rodgers conceded the need for Celtic to do better against Kilmarnock and st Mirren after declaring a 14-per-cent rise in the wage bill to £59.3m in the recent accounts.

‘Listen, we can’t run away from it,’ he continued. ‘If you are paying good wages and you’ve got the squad, you will be expected to do something. You are expected to win.

‘That’s the job of the Celtic manager — and, in particular, since I’ve come in these last few years.

‘It doesn’t always equate in terms of what we did in our first season.

‘Teams will always look to get closer to you.

‘But you always have to focus on yourself and push forward.’