A matter of trust!
A lot of our players and staff have experienced high-pressure derbies to give Celtic the edge, says Rodgers
ALTHOUGH still as volatile and combustible as they’ve ever been, the view of Old Firm games as being impossible affairs to call has felt outdated from the moment Brendan Rodgers’ shadow was first cast upon them.
Across two spells in charge of Celtic, the Northern Irishman has faced Rangers 16 times. He’s won 12, drawn three and lost just once.
Contrary to the age-old cliché, the form book has seldom gone out of the window. The preeminent force in Scotland throughout his time, victories over Rangers have come just as frequently as they’ve done over any other opponent.
You might say it’s a matter of trust. Even in a week like this when the external pressure could feel suffocating, the Celtic manager looks around him and sees men who have delivered time and time again in this circumstance and who he believes are hard-wired to do so once more.
‘That consistency and knowing what you’re going to get from people in a high-stakes game, in a game of tension and a game of pressure, whether that’s the manager or a player, it’s great to look at that. It is important,’ he explained.
‘It’s a culture and an environment that’s created here also. There’s winning, but the build-up to how you win is important and that obviously breeds confidence.
‘I think what really helps is the fact that when I’m here, alone with myself, I look around the team and I look at the staff and there’s players here and people here that have done it.
‘They understand what it takes. Callum McGregor. James Forrest. Some of the other guys who’ve been here for a few years and have done it. John Kennedy on the staff. Stevie Woods on the staff.
‘That gives you that confidence and understanding of what it takes. When you have that, you can approach this with a calmness that allows you to focus on the performance and not get too carried away with all the noise.’
A detachment from the fervour and the heat that’s steadily risen in the city all week is essential to carry out a professional job.
Which is not to say that the storied history of the fixture is ever a stranger to him.
‘As a boy growing up and seeing these games, watching them and feeling the emotion…’ he started to recall. ‘I remember my very first game when we won 5-1 at home in the September (2016) and there’s definitely a sense of that.
‘You take yourself back because you are a supporter really on the side of the pitch, when you get the chance to manage the team. That’s where the privilege comes from and the honour.’
The life in football he knew before initially coming to Glasgow offered some intoxicating experiences. None, though, quite like the one he’ll sample again today.
‘For me, it’s only excitement and sheer passion,’ Rodgers added. ‘I’ve been involved in Liverpool v Manchester United, Liverpool v Everton, great games. Swansea v Cardiff was a great derby game, as well.
‘But this is different. The feeling, the tension, it really is an iconic fixture. I’m very privileged to manage Celtic in it.’
The context of this final league joust of the term is distinct from what he’s known previously.
Back in 2017,
Rodgers’ side were already champions as they crushed Rangers 5-1 at Ibrox. The following year, they got over the line with a 5-0 win over their great rivals on home soil. On both occasions, Aberdeen finished runners-up. It’s a different story this year. By dint of their three-point lead and home advantage today, Celtic are slight favourites for the title but that will only be justified if they live up to that billing this afternoon. ‘I have to say from a personal perspective it doesn’t feel any different,’ Rodgers (pictured) insisted. ‘Other times where we have had leads or not, or this one where it is tight, the focus is really on the next game and performing to the very highest level we possibly can. ‘In my first season here, we had an Invincible season and could have easily checked out of that long before we did. ‘But the mentality is to win and win in the best way we very possibly can. That took us to the end of that season unbeaten and achieving a great season. ‘So, for me it never changes, whether you are three points clear or 30 points clear. ‘Our measure is us — being the best we can possibly be, finishing the season as strongly as we can so that we can take a really strong positive start into next season.’ He will naturally save any reflections on the campaign for the point at which the picture is complete.
Given the travails and the doubts that have existed, you sense that this title — should they get there — would feel sweeter than those that have come before.
‘I think it’s one that you have to back yourself in that moment,’ he said of a bleak mid-winter.
‘You know that performancewise and at time results-wise it wasn’t what we would have liked or wanted but you have to stay focused, stay calm.
‘I think the whole underlying thing that I was fully aware of, that lots of people maybe were but didn’t want to say, the principal difference was personnel.
‘We had really important players missing. When you have players of that ilk who can really affect the performance of the team and they are not there… the football looks different.
‘But, importantly, it was a case of staying with it. The players were brilliant in the whole process. They had belief in what they were doing.
‘They are such a humble and honest group. It was a case of chipping away then when we get to a stage where those players are back, the football then starts to shine.
‘In the last performance against Hearts, that’s more like I would have expected if the team was fit and available for most of the season.
‘Let’s hope we can finish that way with those players fit and the football can shine for us then.’