Celtic’s 6-0 win over Aberdeen yesterday is probably the performance of the season from Brendan Rodgers’ side in the Scottish Premiership.
The first-half performance in particular was a joy to watch and the final 15 minutes against the Pittodrie side was just brilliant.
Fluent passing, nice passages of play and clinical in front of goal, this performance by Celtic had it all and it was the perfect tonic to banish the memory of the defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
So how did Rodgers manage to do it? How did he pick his players up to produce such an incredible performance?
What Brendan Rodgers said to his Celtic players
The Celtic manager was very philosophical and his message was really very simple as he urged his players to show their mentality to bounce back from the defeat.
Rodgers said [BBC Sportsound], “I said to the players that throughout your life as a footballer and players that throughout your life as a football player and a manager is that you have pain points within your season that hurt.
“And obviously that was one of them. But the beauty of having those moments is it gives you a great opportunity to show your mentality in order to bounce back.”
I mean, it doesn’t sound like an inspiring or a rousing speech but what that tells you is that the manager clearly has the respect and the buy-in from the whole Celtic squad.
To take those simple words from Rodgers and produce a display like that was simply outstanding and the Celtic manager deserves a lot of credit for that.
It would have been so easy for Celtic to go into that game yesterday feeling sorry for themselves and drop points. But to play for over 97 minutes after chasing shadows in Madrid midweek shows you exactly why this team are champions.
In other news, 28-year-old Celtic player was spotted ‘very unhappy’ leaving the pitch vs Aberdeen