Rodgers: No defensive gifts to Zenit
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has warned his defence not to hand Zenit St Petersburg any gifts when they face the Russians in the first leg of their Europa League tie tomorrow night.
Roberto Mancini’s team travel to Glasgow as favourites to progress into the last 16 but Celtic assistant boss Chris Davies says the home side are capable of pulling off a shock if they can stay fully engaged and keep it tight at the back.
Davies said: “The manager has been reinforcing to them the concentration aspect. It’s really important at this level, when you are facing teams like Zenit it can be about that mental fatigue. You need to concentrate, be switched on and alive, for every single moment of the game.
“That’s going to be very important on Thursday to ensure we are defensively solid.”
Defence is considered Celtic’s main weakness at European level, with Rodgers’ men having succumbed to some heavy Champions League defeats, and injuries and ineligibility have given the Parkhead boss plenty to ponder as he tries to plug the gaps and eradicate individual errors.
There have been a series of rejigs, due to injuries and form, and the backline has
not looked assured of late, even on domestic duty. With Dorus de Vries back in goals following Craig Gordon’s knee injury, Rodgers will also be without his more experienced centre-backs. Dedryk Boyata has not recovered from a groin strain, while Marvin Compper is ineligible.
In their absence Jozo Simunovic looks certain to start and Rodgers just needs to decide whether he will partner him with Kristoffer Ajer or Jack Hendry. Whoever gets the nod, the pressure to try to prevent the Russians bagging vital away goals will be immense and will require them to cut back on the kind of individual blunders Simunovic was responsible for as recently as Saturday as he allowed Partick Thistle to score two cheap goals in their Scottish Cup clash.
“There’s never usually one thing, it can be a combination of factors,” said Davies of their previous defensive displays of vulnerability. “It might be there’s an individual lapse. It can happen in football but it’s about making sure you learn from it and don’t make the same mistakes again. “Sometimes it’s the opposition showing that bit of qualify finishing off the chances they wouldn’t normally and as a team it’s about closing down the spaces quickly. These are the things we are looking to address to make sure we are defensively sound.
“You can work on that in training. Domestically we are used to having a lot of the ball, then you come in to Europe and you are not the team with most of the ball. It’s something you look at in training and try to help the players.
“The manager has been reinforcing to the players the importance of defensive organisation, concentrating on being hard to beat because we know we have threats going the other way.”
There remains a chance that Tom Rogic, pictured, could play some part in tomorrow night’s tie but Davies admitted that the clash has come around too early for Patrick Roberts, Stuart Armstrong and Leigh Griffiths.
“Stuart isn’t training outside yet while Pat has only just started training with the team again. But it’s too soon for them. Usually you need a base of fitness and then some training to make yourself available to play in the competitive games.
“Tom is a little bit further ahead. He has a good base of training and was due to play for the Development team on Monday to get some minutes. He’s at that phase now that he’s had a good couple of weeks training so there’s a chance that he will be involved in the Zenit games. We’ll just have to see how he is and make a decision.”