When your right-back you know your team

THE record books show it was mid-July when Celtic melted in the heat of Gibraltar’s compact Victoria Stadium. As far as the style of football now being produced by Brendan Rodgers’ side is concerned, it might well have been in the middle ages.

While most who witnessed it all going so horribly wrong that opening night against Lincoln Red Imps felt sure the damage would be repaired back in Glasgow the following week, few could surely claim to have envisaged the progress Rodgers’ team has made up until this point.

Not only was Champions League qualification achieved, Celtic welcome Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup tomorrow still to taste defeat domestically.

The naked facts offered by the Premiership table tell their own story: 23 wins from 24. Just one game drawn. A lead of 27 points. A goal difference of plus 49.

More than any numbers, however, the aesthetic beauty of the fifth goal Rodgers’ men scored at Perth last Sunday succinctly summed up what they have become. Some 24 passes were strung together. A rabona from Mikael Lustig preceded a back-heel from Callum McGregor before Moussa Dembele completed a hat-trick by wrong-footing the goalkeeper.

A sure sign of a side at the very top of its game. A move, Rodgers freely admits, that would have been way beyond them in the early weeks of the campaign.

‘I don’t think so, no,’ he agreed. ‘When your right-back is doing rabonas, you know it’s a team in good confidence. Also Callum’s little nick round the corner as well.

‘What this team are developing now is this priceless quality of staying calm under pressure and in pressure moments finding a way.

‘Back then, we couldn’t have done that. Back then there were fundamental things within the team we had to improve. Now you look at it and we make the passes but they are not slow passes.

‘It’s that speed and tempo. It’s aggressive. If you can do it in one pass, you do it. But if it’s not on, you’ve got to keep it and move them about.

‘The beauty of us is if you look at the last 15 minutes of games, teams in that period are mentally and physically tired because of our counter pressing.

‘When you press the ball and win it back so much, it tires out the other team because they’ve got to chase the ball and, mentally, it’s a constant. ‘The spaces start to open up. It’s great credit to the players in terms of understanding this patience in the game now. If we don’t break a team down in the first halfhour, it’s okay. ‘That last half-hour is when our fitness, conditioning and game model can really come into it. That’s work. That’s why we’re here — to improve that level of game and, hopefully, the supporters enjoy it.’ It’s fair to say that can be taken as read. For the Celtic support at large, Rodgers is just a man who can now do no wrong. The degree of trust between the paying public and the man at the helm has rarely been higher. Moments such as those witnessed late on at McDiarmid Park last weekend tend to seal the deal. Anxious gasps and nervous squeals are rarely heard from the stands when there’s a general acceptance that the manager and his players are in control.

‘The fans get it. When it’s not on and we come back out, like when Kieran Tierney recycled the ball they started to clap. They understand,’ said Rodgers. ‘Lots of teams like to get it forward quickly but when you do that it comes back just as quick.

‘There has been a change. We want to attack. It’s the culture of the club going back many years being an attacking, aggressive side.

‘I knew that coming in here. It’s about education, staying calm and knowing why we’re doing it. It’s difficult if you are playing against a side who are sat in with numbers behind the ball, playing a low block.

‘You can’t always break through with one pass. There’s a strategy to it. You want to wear teams down but it has to be quick, dynamic and forward thinking.’

If moments like the one witnessed in Perth suggest Rodgers has already taken Celtic to a place few managers have been able to go, the bad news for the competition is he views his mission as only just beginning.

Frustrated at only being able to sign one player in January, the expectation is for substantially more summer recruits.

Exact figures, both in relation to the number of players he covets and the money at his disposal, naturally remain off limits. Yet his desire for all at the club to press their foot to the floor is apparent.

‘I’ll always be the same. I meet the board regularly and speak to Peter (Lawwell) just about every day,’ added Rodgers.

‘The best time to improve is when you are successful. As a football club, you can’t sit and glorify about what you have, on or off the field.

‘You have to have one eye on today and one on tomorrow. You can’t rest on your laurels.

‘We’ve made a nice start here but there is a whole load for us still to do.

‘That’s the exciting part — because we have only just started.’

The consequence of seeing off Hapoel Be’er Sheva over two legs in the final qualifier was laid bare this week in figures for the last six months of 2016 which showed a 94 per cent increase in turnover to £61.2million.

In an age where enormous debt at major European clubs is almost looked upon as a badge of honour, Rodgers takes pride in the fact that everything at the club he now manages is bought and paid for.

‘You have to give huge amount of credit to Peter and the people here,’ he reflected. ‘Those figures demonstrate a really solid model of management, in a difficult climate.

‘There is risk and reward, but you have to ensure the risk is worth it.

‘What Peter has shown is wonderful leadership. We are very fortunate at Celtic with the intellect of the board.

‘One of the key things I’ve seen here is the high level of intelligence at board level.

‘They stay calm in moments, there’s strategy and trust, which is important — and it’s all for the common goal, which is Celtic.

‘The guys leading the club deserve a huge amount of credit for providing the base to allow the club to move forward.’