Rodgers eyes up a nifty fifty
BRENDAN RODGERS has admitted he wants to win the title by 50 points, such is his voracious desire to drive up standards of performance at Celtic.
The Northern Irishman has led the runaway league leaders to a 27-point advantage over Aberdeen and Rangers in his first six months in charge of the champions.
And, following yesterday’s 6-0 thumping of Inverness in the William Hill Scottish Cup, he warned Scottish football that the best is yet to come from his team.
Rodgers, who has raised the possibility of breaking Celtic’s transfer record this summer, will be relentless in his pursuit of further improvement for as long as he is manager at Parkhead.
He said: ‘I’m not saying there were never good standards
here. Celtic over the last five seasons have won. But what I’ve tried to do since I came in is raise the standard on every level.
‘Could we win in the best possible way that we can? So you can save money and win by ten points. Or can you spend money and win by 30? Well, I want to win by 50 if I can.’
Yesterday’s resounding victory featured a second consecutive hat-trick from striker Moussa Dembele, with Mikael Lustig, Kieran Tierney and captain Scott Brown completing the scoring at Celtic Park.
‘It was straightforward only because the players were brilliant,’ continued Rodgers.
‘Their attitude was first class. My study of Inverness showed that they actually have some good technical players who can move the ball — but we never gave them an opportunity to do that.
‘The pressing was excellent
and we got real penetration at the top end of the field.
‘I thought the two wingers were outstanding. Scotty Sinclair will be devastated he hasn’t scored, but both him and James (Forrest) made a huge contribution today.
‘Moussa will get goals — I’m pleased for him, though, because there are other elements of his game we work on in training that I see improving, how he receives it, his touch to move away into space, all getting better.
‘And the captain was brilliant again as well. The goal he scored, he was dumped on the floor earlier in the move but still gets up and scores with a great finish.
‘It was just a very good performance and I still feel we’ll get better as the season goes on.’
Inverness Caley Thistle manager Richie Foran accorded with Rodgers’ view, going as far to suggest that Celtic are unstoppable.
He said: ‘There is no stopping them at the moment. You can see the confidence running through their team. They’ve got pace to break on you, they have class.
‘They have quality on the park, on the bench and a manager who is doing a great job.’
Although they sit bottom of the table, Inverness are the sole reason Rodgers has not recorded a 100-per-cent record in the Ladbrokes Premiership after holding the league leaders to a 2-2 draw in September last year.
With the title a formality and his team now in the quarterfinals of the Scottish Cup, Celtic are effectively three games away from the Treble.
‘I said to the players before the game that the Scottish Cup is synonymous with Celtic,’ added Rodgers. ‘Thirty-six times the club has won the trophy. We want to make it 37.
‘I said we had four cup finals, now we have three.’
The former Liverpool boss revealed that he set the highest standards during his initial discussions with the club prior to his appointment last May.
‘Celtic is a winning club,’ he added. ‘But there are two ways to win; either you just do enough and win. Or you do everything you can to win the very best way you can.
‘My only way is to win in the best possible way. Entertain the supporters, make people enjoy it, make the players enjoy their work... and win as often as you can.
‘And I want to keep pushing the bar and keep it being the best we can be on and off the field. Can we get better pitches? Can we improve Lennoxtown? Can we improve the stadium?
‘Those things come from success on the field. Coming in my early meetings with the board, they were very positive about that. They said: “Right, let’s get to the best that we can be. But sensibly”.’