Wright: Celtic still set the bar
he changed half his side and left out some of his mainstays of recent years. These are likely to all return in Perth, with Kristoffer Ajer fit again to partner Dedryck Boyata, pictured, as Filip Benkovic seeks to shake off an Achilles issue.
What Rodgers will never change is his coaching philosophy. “If any team that you look at are convinced of their methods, it would be this group of players.
“One thing you can never have is doubt. If you fall into that trap, you have an issue. A problem. I’ve worked in coaching all my life since 20 years of age and these are principles that I believe in.
“Of course you tweak. You do lots of that within games. When you look at it from time to time, it’s been a wee bit stiff and wee bit rigid, but us at our best, there’s lots of variety.
“We will always look to maintain our identity. Our identity is of a big club, which is you have to impose your game and look to win. For me, there is no compromise.” St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright insists Betfred Cup opponents Celtic are still the benchmark, despite their boss, Brendan Rodgers, admitting Celtic fans should be alarmed that their 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock on Sunday left them with ten points after six games, their poorest start in 20 years.
However, ahead of the quarter-final clash at Mcdiarmid Park tonight, Wright said: “Brendan is just calling it as he sees it. He is an honest, straight-talking manager. If he says everything is rosy in the garden and we are playing brilliantly the Celtic fans will see through it, everybody will see through it.
“It might be a wee reminder to his players. Their form has been indifferent, they haven’t hit the heights that they have shown but they still have the best squad, still will be the team everybody has to beat to win cups and win the league and it is only six games.
“My job is to try to make it after Wednesday night that they are still indifferent.
“But I watched them in the Old Firm game and in Europe. The Old Firm game in particular they were outstanding, totally dominated it.
“I think when a team is successful they are going to hit a period when their form is a bit indifferent.”
Saints lost 5-1 to Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday, but Wright is hoping a fixture against the other half of the Old Firm is the pick-up required.
He said: “We haven’t got time to dwell or feel sorry for ourselves. Football is like that anyway. You have to move on very quickly, you have to learn very quickly.
“With a midweek game, a cup game, it could be the perfect tonic for us.” wouldn’t be able to play through them. Rodgers dismissed Boyd’s theories.
“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,” Rodgers said.
“I think now in the modern game, with the introduction of social media, Twitter, phone-ins and all that sort of stuff, the logic is that when you lose a game either there is something up with the dressing room or you don’t have a Plan B.
“There is no doubt the summer was complicated for us on and off the pitch. But, we are very much unified. I think you seen that when Dedryck came back. Everyone on the field ran to him.
“We have lost a game of football and what comes with that is the changing room is broken and we have no Plan B. But, we have a blueprint here with many variations and we have had an incredible levceltic el of consistency which has allowed us to do that. Sometimes it doesn’t quite come off for us but it is my job to get us back to that level.”
Winger Lewis Morgan was equally scathing about Boyd’s claims of unrest.
“That’s someone outwith the club who wouldn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on inside the building,” said Morgan.
“That’s definitely not true. That’s nonsense. We’ve got a really close-knit team. You can only look at what we’ve achieved over the last couple of years. That doesn’t come without a close team.”