CALLUM McGREGOR reckons Brendan Rodgers emphasised his qualities as a coach and answered his critics with his tactics in Celtic’s 0-0 draw with Atalanta in Bergamo.
After the 7-1 mauling in Dortmund at the start of the month still fresh in everyone’s mind, it looked as though the Hoops were about to endure another tough and arduous night in the Champions League.
However, on this occasion, the manager got his strategy spot on to confound his detractors and derail the freescoring hosts who just could not get the ball behind the giant frame of Kasper Schmeichel.
McGregor insisted Rodgers belongs in Europe’s elite competition and stressed: “Oh, absolutely, he’s top level and I’ve seen that over so many years now.
HAIL, HAIL…Brendan Rodgers acknowledges the Celtic supporters in Bergamo.
“Obviously, he’ll feel good about himself after that as well as all the players. It was excellent.
“If anyone wants to question the manage, then they just need to look at what he’s done in football and what he’s done to our club.
“He totally transformed the club the first time he was here and he’s come back and taken forward a really exciting Ange Postecoglou team that did really well.
“For me, there’s no question that he’s a top manager. When you come to this competition, the idea in the Dortmund game was similar, we got lost as players, so we have to take responsibility for that.
“It got out of hand and we spoke about that.
“As players, we’ve got to take responsibility because it can’t always be the manager’s fault, it’s sometimes the players’ fault.
EURO STARS…Liam Scales, James Forrest, Kasper Schmeichel, Daizen Maeda and Luke McCowan applaud the travelling support after the goalless draw with Atalanta.
“But the way that we executed the game plan against Atalanta, especially against that man-to-man system, everyone should take the credit because he came up with the idea and the players then executed it.
“It’s a real togetherness and I’m sure he’ll be the first one to say that, too.”
On paper, the trips to Dortmund and Bergamo are Celtic’s toughest games in the new-look Champions League and they now face back-to-back encounters at Parkhead next month against RB Leipzig and Club Brugge.
There were not too many observers who believed the visitors would take anything from either confrontation against the German club who were runners-up to Real Madrid in the showpiece showdown and the Serie A outfit who won the Europa League last season.
McGregor, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “Yeah, it was probably a bonus point. I think we knew that if we could get something from the game, we had to bring a big level and all these things.
UP AND AT ‘EM…a determined Alistair Johnston attempts to repel an air raid.
“With the other games, we just have to look at them in isolation and see what we can get and, hopefully, by the end of the competition in January, we’ve qualified or we’re in that play-off group to go and try to qualify for the next stage.
“We just take it one by one and try not to get too up or down in terms of the results. We know where we want to be and we’ve just got to stick together as a group.”
The influential captain added: “It’s exciting – we’re maybe ahead of where we should be in terms of points.
“Home games are always important, the next one will be very difficult, similar to the Dortmund style the Germans play.
“It’ll be a tough game, but, hopefully, we can get on our game and bring the crowd with us and get another positive result.”
