As his Euro goal becomes ever tougher, Rodgers hopes practice will pay off

IN 2014, as Brendan Rodgers reflected on the disappointment of falling just short in his pursuit of the English Premier League title, there was a substantial consolation on the horizon.

Pipped at the post by Manchester City in heartbreaking circumstances, Liverpool’s failure was rewarded with the luxury of automatic entry to the Champions League.

UEFA’s gift for Rodgers’ backto-back Trebles at Celtic? An extra qualifying round that commences while one of his key defenders is still competing at the World Cup finals.

If they are to be granted a seat at Europe’s top table, the Scottish champions must navigate eight 90-minute legs of pressured cup-tie football starting this Tuesday against Armenian title holders Alaskhert.

Rodgers has guided Celtic through successive qualifying campaigns, withstanding rocky moments in Gibraltar, Kazkhstan and Israel along the way.

Celtic fly out to Yerevan today and, although he concedes his players are not yet fully fit, Rodgers can take comfort from the fact they are practised in negotiating these tense and dangerous matches.

‘It’s clearly going to be more difficult this year,’ he said. ‘Both Neil (Lennon) and Ronny (Deila) will tell you that three ties was difficult enough in previous seasons.

‘Touch wood, we can get through but then we have Rosenborg in the next game, which is not easy, followed by two more ties after that.

‘So it’s an extremely challenging period early on in the season. If we had these games in October and November, it would be completely different. We have to find a way.’

There are implications for the conditioning work done with his squad over the close season. At Liverpool, he could devise an extended programme that would build in a warm-weather training camp in America,

satisfying the club’s owners and sponsors in the process with a few low-tempo friendly matches.

At Celtic, the work is all concentrated into a short period and this year it culminated in last Tuesday’s bizarre day of football in Austria featuring two separate 90-minute matches played morning and evening.

‘My sympathy is for the players,’ added Rodgers. ‘Down south, you have a five-to-six week block to get the players ready for that first game of the season.

‘You can take them away and gradually increase the tempo. Give them 45 minutes, building up to 60, 70. We are literally a couple of weeks in and we had to play two 90-minutes games in the heat in Austria.

‘The players aren’t ready. That shouldn’t be the case but it’s something we have to do.

‘It is tough but I try not to overthink it. We know we are never going to be perfect at this stage but if we can get through it will be a great boost for everyone.

‘It’s the best club tournament in the world, so we want to be in it.’

There is no question that managing Celtic has brought immense personal satisfaction and pride to Rodgers, who clearly feeds on the adulation of the club’s supporters.

Yet there is also a relentless grind to the job, never more so than at this time of year when the health of the club’s balance sheet is at stake.

‘I was able to rest over the summer but it all goes very quickly,’ he admitted. ‘In the first week, you are just coming down after a long season. Then in the blink of an eye, you come back are into it.

‘You have to rest but I love my life as a manager, working with players and people. Hopefully we will have another exciting season.’

UEFA’s tweaking of the tournament means there is an ever narrowing margin for error.

‘The so-called bigger leagues have an extra place guaranteed, so the likes of ourselves have to accept that we have an extra tie,’ shrugged Rodgers. ‘We want to be in there, though it’s such a jump from where we are domestically to facing these huge sides.

‘We just have to accept that and just keep trying to find ways to improve. First year, we qualified and then the second we qualified and got into the Europa League.

‘The challenge is to keep on that route, develop and see how far we can get.’

The exploits of Belgium and Sweden have allowed Rodgers to take a very personal interest deep into the latter stages of the World Cup.

There’s been pride at watching Dedryck Boyata and Mikael Lustig perform in Russia but consequently he has been left with a staffing problem ahead of the qualifiers.

Rodgers didn’t expect any of the four players the club sent to the tournament — Tom Rogic (Australia) and Cristian Gamboa (Costa Rica) were knocked out after the group stage — to participate against Alashkert.

But with two key defenders still effectively active in last season’s cycle of football as of yesterday, he will have to further mix and match his defence as they advance through the preliminaries.

‘When you look at how we have qualified previously, we have had to shuffle it round,’ said Rodgers. ‘First time round, we had young Eoghan O’Connell and Efe Ambrose playing over in Astana and they did great.

‘So we have been without very important players in these games and the job is to find a way.’

It should also be pointed out that Alshkert are not without their own troubles after star defender Divo Skvorc was transferred to Hungarian side Honved.

‘We’ve obviously done the homework on them in terms of their shape, which is 4-2-3-1,’ added Rodgers. ‘We’ve worked hard to get the information and it’s going to be one of those stuffy games.

‘You cannot press the game for 90 minutes. Tactically, we will have to be clever in our game.

‘It’s always difficult to travel away and play in that heat but the job is there to be done over two legs and we know we have the home game in Glasgow to come regardless.’