Rodgers tips Celtic midfielder for Scotland call
Brendan Rodgers predicts international honours for on-form Celtic midfielder
The midfielder is yet to win a full Scotland cap but Brendan Rodgers believes born-again Stuart Armstrong has “everything needed” to play international football.
Armstrong credited Rodgers with rejuvenating his Celtic career after Saturday’s 2-1 Old Firm victory over Rangers at Ibrox. Now the Celtic manager has repaid the compliment, describing Armstrong as having qualities guaranteed to mean Scotland manager Gordon Strachan is considering him for a call-up.
“He’s got big, big qualities that can really set him up in the game now,” said Rodgers. “He’s shown he’s improving all the time so if he keeps going – you can’t ever become complacent, which he wouldn’t – and keeps knocking on the door, I’m sure Gordon will look at him and think he’s doing a great job.”
While Armstrong has been named in Scotland squads before when with Dundee United, the 24-year-old has yet to play for the national team.
He turns 25 four days after Scotland’s next competitive fixture, against Slovenia at Hampden on 26 March, although a friendly is expected to be arranged shortly before this vital World Cup qualifier.
Against Rangers on Saturday Armstrong was again at the heart of a commanding Celtic performance in front of the watching Strachan, who was working as a pundit for Sky Sports.
Armstrong has scored eight league goals for Celtic this season since breaking back into the team in August – the same number as Leigh Griffiths and just one fewer than Moussa Dembele.
Strachan enthused on television about the midfielder, who came close to adding to this tally against Rangers. Rodgers has now endorsed his credentials for a Scotland call-up.
“I always look at what you need to play at international level, to play at the highest level you want to be effective,” the Celtic manager said. “You want a midfield player that’s got a high level of technique and has got mobility to run and be physical and he’s got all that.
“Like I said, everything you need to play at that level he has.”
Dembele and Scott Sinclair have 25 goals between them in all competitions, while Griffiths has weighed in with another 13. But Armstrong, with eight, is fourth in the list of Celtic goalscorers this season, one above Tom Rogic on seven goals. Rodgers believes not relying on one principal source of goals is the recipe for success.
“We needed to find multiple scorers in the team because you are never going to succeed if you only have one player who is going to score the goals,” he said. “Tom Rogic got 10 goals last season, I said to him he has to look for 20 with his qualities and our style of playing.”
Rodgers has received a lot of credit for helping transform players during his successful first six months as Celtic manager. But he insists Stuart Armstrong’s remarkable change in fortunes is all down to the player himself.
The 24-year-old has become as much of a fixture in the side as fellow midfielder Scott Brown beside him. Indeed, when Brown was suspended for a recent game against Dundee, Armstrong was handed the captain’s armband, serving to illustrate just how far he has come since days when he was considered a Celtic fringe player.
Armstrong was again outstanding at Ibrox against Rangers in Saturday’s 2-1 win, which helped extend Celtic’s unbeaten domestic run to 24 games since the start of the season. The versatile midfielder has made a sizeable contribution to this run, having scored eight league goals already – just one fewer than Moussa Dembele.
Armstrong can reflect on a satisfying first half of the season as he jets off to Dubai with his team-mates later this week for a winter break while also relishing the possibility of what’s to come – including a likely Scotland call-up.
“He’s a really significant player for us,” said Rodgers. “It’s great to see. His goals have just come from giving him a framework – it’s all down to him.
“Being a goalscorer is just giving them confidence. You saw when he played against Inverness at right-back, he should have had a hat-trick. If I put him at centre-half he’ll probably score!
“He’s just that type of player,” he added. “He’s got an in-built brain for getting in the box and getting goals. When he’s in and around that area he wants to score goals. He’s fundamentally learned the position – how I would see that played is as a No 8. Firstly you have to defend, you have to press the game, you have to get tight to people, win the ball back and recover. When you play, you’ve got to play in the corridor and don’t make daft runs to the corner flag. You see midfield players and strikers running to the corner flag. I always say to them ‘why are you going to the corner flag when the goal is in there?’ So stay in the corridor and get central.”
Rodgers admits Armstrong’s above-average intelligence for a footballer, as well as his diligence, could be reasons why he has taken on board so successfully suggested improvements to his game. But the manager believes Armstrong, who is studying for a law degree at the Open University, deserves all the credit. He has applauded his hunger to improve.
“He’s technically very strong and tactically he’s understanding now how to keep the ball,” he said. “When I first came in he gave it away too cheaply. He wants to progress to be a player so we reinforced the possession element of his game.
“He’s also got a good range of pass, can shoot and is good on set pieces. So he’s really developing very well and to put on top of that he’s a really bright boy. He’s sees it and feels it but he knows he has to keep having that hunger to improve.
“I had a boy at Swansea, Andrea Orlandi [now with Cypriot club APOEL] – a Spanish boy who used to be with Barcelona,” Rodgers continued.
“He was studying law when I was there. He left Swansea for Brighton. He was a very clever boy and a terrific footballer. But no – there won’t be too many [like Armstrong].
“There is a culture – it’s easy to write off footballers,” he added. “Most of them are bright. They may not have an academic background but most of them don’t have that opportunity because their working life is straight into football.
“There are lots of footballers I know that are clever. They might not have academic knowledge but what they have is practical knowledge and that’s what gets you through in life.
“I’ve met loads of ones that are very smart but very stupid. But if you’ve got practical knowledge – you don’t know where you get it from but you get it – that’s the most important knowledge. Academia is great but if you don’t know how to implement it, it counts for nothing.”
Armstrong isn’t the only player whose career is firmbrendan ly on an upwards trajectory at Celtic under Rodgers. But while Craig Gordon is another willing learner, his case is different in that he looked on course to be jettisoned by the manager, who was unconvinced by his ability to pass the ball out from the back, as is now the trend for a modern goalkeeper.
Rodgers signed Dorus de Vries from Nottingham Forest and almost immediately picked him ahead of Gordon, who has since battled back to regain possession of the No 1 jersey. He was again assured against Rangers on Saturday on his 34th birthday. Rodgers has praised Gordon for making the best of himself, like Armstrong.
“I look at Craig Gordon and the developments he has made,” he said. “I used to watch games and when the ball went back to him, I could sense the crowd.
“Now he’s calm and it’s not just him, it’s the other players who have to get into position. Giving players solutions under pressure and how to cope with it and you have to give him immense credit because at 32 or 33, he could have said: ‘You know what, this isn’t going to work out’.
“We had a real chat and now look at him. People wonder why I brought in Dorus de Vries, but he’s an influence on that as well. He’s seen how he’s working and he’s able to sit with him and talk about how I worked at Swansea.
“That’s helped him [Gordon] along with his own intelligence of how to get better. Individually, I take a great pride as a coach as we’re here to improve players and make them better.”
“His goals have come from giving him a framework – it’s all down to him. He’s fundamentally learned the position – how I would see that played is as a no 8” “He’s technically very strong and tactic ally he’s understanding now how to keep the ball. when i first came in he gave it away too cheaply” BREDNDAN RODGERS