THE SCIENCE BEHIND CELTIC’S INVINCIBLES
Celts cuffed Gers twice after Bren listened to advice from fitness guru Glen on their way to Invincible Treble
GLEN DRISCOLL approached Brendan Rodgers last season and told him to back off just a few days before the first Old Firm clash.
Celtic’s head of performance issued the same instruction before the players met Rangers again for the final time in the campaign.
On both occasions, Rodgers took the key advice of one of his most trusted lieutenants.
On both occasions, Celtic romped to 5-1 wins as they went through 59 matches on their way to an Invincible Treble.
With 12 gruelling Champions League ties intertwined with an unbeaten domestic record of 47 matches, it took more than just talent and skill.
Now, following just 10 days’ rest for some of them after international commitments, Celtic’s squad need to get back flying instantly when pre-season training starts today to get into the zone for the Euro qualifiers.
It takes planning, it takes guile and in the case of Rodgers and Driscoll, it takes the appliance of science.
The Celtic manager made appointing the head of performance one of his first acts at Parkhead.
He had worked with Driscoll at Liverpool and Swansea and his man had also been involved with the likes of Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink and Carlo Ancelotti during nine years at Chelsea where he was visible across the areas of performance, fitness and conditioning, physiotherapy and injury prevention.
Rodgers demands high standards in both training and matches. Driscoll is the man who can gauge who is doing what, when they are doing it, if they can do it and if they’re not ready to do it.
As the link between the football department and the medical side he is the grease that helps keep Rodgers’s machine perfectly oiled as the manager drives it to glory.
Make no mistake Rodgers is the boss but such is the respect between the pair that if Driscoll advises something may need to be tweaked to keep the team or an individual in tip-top shape, the manager will take note.
In an exclusive interview with Record Sport Driscoll said: “We have had a couple of big games leading into Rangers twice. I remember we have had to pull things back and I remember having that conversation.
“Brendan has such a great insight and understanding that he immediately said yes. It affected both the 5-1 matches against Rangers.
“We adapted. We changed what we were going to do compared to how we had periodised the week. That was based on the science and the information we had from the training leading into those games. That made a significant difference.
“When we’ve had an intervention that has allowed the players to perform, you gain satisfaction.”
Clearly the expertise within the working relationship gives Celtic yet another edge. Rarely did Rodgers have more than one or two players out injured at one time last term.
Week on week they finish games strongly and score late goals. In game 59 they hit an injury-time winner – the Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen.
The duo have devised plans to get them going again quickly and Driscoll said: “We are very holistic in how we work and I guess I have almost got two roles. My first role is that I’m Brendan’s training methodologist, which he is the head of.
“It’s his technical and tactical work which is so advanced and innovative. He is gifted and has great variety.
“He will consult me and we have this training methodology that we have evolved over the years.
“This is our fifth club now. The origins of how he works started with the Dutch and total football, he’s gone to Barcelona to see how Johan Cryuff worked. We have taken parts from Mourinho and I have worked with Hiddink and Ancelotti.
“Together we have had this methodology which has kept improving and we have strived to get better and better. As it is now, we feel it is advanced. We use applied science and I use it to help Brendan.
“He’s the leader of his training but he’ll come to me at the start of our month and periodise the training. I’ll go to him sometimes to say ‘We need to bring that back’ but ultimately he’s the leader.”
Gone are the days when the connection between manager and medical staff was a shout into the treatment room on a Friday morning to ask who was fit.
Driscoll said: “At Liverpool Brendan took me in to lead the medical and science department and I have a skillset that is designed to help them. I’m a chartered physio and a sports scientist, worked on PHDs. Basically I can help those departments with my experience and knowledge.
“But to then be able to influence the manager in order to protect players or to increase the fitness of players and influence training is a different scenario.
“In the way we work the head fitness coach at the club is really a manager. It’s a football specific way of working.
“He has to have that insight and he will consult me. Then I will glean information from the other departments and where players are in terms of availability status.
“We have a very good medical and science set-up. One of the areas I pride myself on is that, as I’m qualified in both areas, every department I work with is bridged.
“But I need good people and we apply our science, we have real time and we use that to then present to Brendan.
“The beauty of what we do is that we can protect players while keeping them in football sessions.
“You are protecting the players from negative work on their muscles which basically causes fatigue and injury.
“The model is very clever. It lets players perform football every day so they are getting the brilliant tactical and technical benefits from the coaches, yet we are also protecting them.
“From a medical perspective, we are constantly trying to get the balance right.”
CRAIG SWAN