Rodgers insists his side deserve to be favourites for grudge match
BRENDAN RODGERS believes Celtic fully merit their status as strong favourites to beat Rangers in the opening derby contest of the season — and he’s delighted to deal with that expectation. A tough set of glamour friendlies, Champions League qualification and league wins over the three teams that chased Celtic home in last year’s top flight are the hot form lines coming into Saturday’s tie.
Meanwhile, Mark Warburton has complained about the Betfred Cup schedule landed on Rangers before the Ladbrokes Premiership began with dropped points to Hamilton, narrow wins over Dundee and Motherwell then a come-from-behind draw at 10-man Kilmarnock.
When asked if he was wary of the tag as heavy favourites to exact revenge for semi-final defeat in April, the ex-Liverpool boss said: ‘Not really because I would say, going into this game, there’s a bit of justification in saying it. I think the proof is there.
‘I know derbies are always dangerous games. It doesn’t matter how well one team is doing and how badly the other team is doing. I remember an Everton game when Roberto Martinez had taken charge and they were on a real high. It was deemed this was going to be the game for them to win at Anfield. We won 4-0. And we were 3-0 up in the first half. We were incredible.
‘And there’s been derby games where we’ve both set out to play a certain way and planned it all. Then David Moyes and I come in after the game and go: “Phew, what happened out there?” It’s a whirlwind, it just goes so fast.
‘But I think, here, people can look at our team at the moment in this very early stage and see a real vibrancy and energy, an aggression in the team. So for us, there’s been an intensity. We never had an easy friendly. We picked teams to play, like Ljubljana, who were potential Champions League qualifiers, Maribor, too.
‘That helped us going into the qualifiers and obviously the competition here is strong and tough as well. We’ve gone away to Hearts, which is a real tough place to go, St Johnstone as well. I think the feeling around the club is a real good one. I think everyone is on an emotional high at the moment.’
Celtic, with a game in hand because of International Champions Cup commitments, host second-placed Rangers with a one-point advantage thanks to those away successes at Tynecastle and McDiarmid Park then last Saturday’s 4-1 defeat of Aberdeen.
Yet, Rodgers is not sure if his former Watford coaching colleague Warburton will remain his closest managerial rival for the duration of the campaign.
When asked if Rangers would be Celtic’s nearest challengers, he said: ‘I don’t know — we haven’t played all the teams yet. The teams we’ve played were all in the top four last year.
‘Rangers are coming up as champions of the Championship, so they are coming in to a league where Aberdeen are well organised and strong, where Hearts are committed and have good players and where St Johnstone are not an easy team to play. I’ll have a better idea over the course of the first half of the season.’
Rodgers, who also counts the fierce Swansea-Cardiff rivalry on his derby CV, was never allowed by his parents to cross the sea for an Old Firm game as he grew up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. His first experience of the unique atmosphere will be from the home dugout at Celtic Park where he insists there is no prospect of him being carried away in the day’s hype.
‘No, I’m not that way,’ he said. ‘I try to control that. Of course, you jump about and get a bit excited at times. But I don’t think I’ve ever been caught up in the derby frenzy on the day.
‘I did run down the trackside before when Swansea qualified for the Play-off Final. I sprinted down the touchline and one of the subs, Mark Gower, was just behind me. He got some stick from Garry Monk and the lads because he couldn’t even beat the gaffer.’