Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers reacted to the Hoops’ 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park, which sees Celtic face either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the next round.
For Rodgers, it was a night where he made the most of his squad, with five substitutions made in the second half. Interestingly, two of them were academy graduates: Daniel Cummings, who made his first-ever Hoops first-team appearance, and Dane Murray, who replaced Liam Scales late in the game.
With Alex Valle and Kyogo Furuhashi leaving Celtic ahead of the game, Rodgers was two players down. With Cameron Carter-Vickers missing through injury and Daizen Maeda suspended, Rodgers fielded a team that the Irishman may have seen as a step down from the side that started last Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Young Boys at Celtic Park.
However, the team that started gave their all. Despite going 2-0 down within 4 minutes, they fought back to level the game at 2-2 before halftime, with Adam Idah in particular stepping up in Kyogo’s absence.
But as Rodgers showed in the second half, with no Kyogo available, Daniel Cummings was the only recognised striker on the bench. While Johnny Kenny has returned from his loan spell at Shamrock Rovers earlier this month, he wasn’t registered for the league phase but may feature in the next round.
The Celtic boss, however, appeared to be looking to send a subtle message to the Hoops board.
Rodgers said: (TNT Sports),”The word that strikes me at the moment is pride. We played with so much courage in the game.
“Obviously you’re disappointed to lose, but we played a big part in a really good game.
“You see what we need to do to build the squad, to really be able to sustain that challenge.
“Some of the young players haven’t played for Celtic before and have now been playing in the Champions League.”
Rodgers’ comments may have both positives and negatives. On the positive side, he shares the same ambition as Celtic supporters to see more signings come through the door ahead of the Champions League knockout playoffs next month.
However, the negative is that given the previous issues in his last spell at the club, including the failure to sign players like John McGinn, Celtic fans will be hopeful that Rodgers feels he is being fully backed in the transfer window. With Monday’s deadline looming, this could be an indication of whether the Hoops come out of the window stronger than they were, ahead of the business end of the season.
