TIME TO GET UGLY, BRENDAN, INSISTS FORMER HOOPS HERO

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BRENDAN RODGERS and his players must be prepared to get ugly in Bergamo when they face Atalanta in matchday three of the Champions League.
That’s the verdict of former Celtic striker Chris Sutton after the team’s 7-1 demolition in Dortmund on Tuesday night as they nosedived embarrassingly in Europe’s elite competition.
Next up for Rodgers’ men is a trip to face the Europa League winners a fortnight on Wednesday.
And the Parkhead manager – who saw his side rout Slaven Bratislava 5-1 in the tournament’s kick-off under the lights in the east end of Glasgow last month – will have to have a major rethink of his big-game strategy.
Or face suffering the same painful consequences they endured at the Westfalenstadion where they trailed 5-1 at the interval.
DISMAL IN DORTMUND…Brendan Rodgers can’t disguise his disappointment.
Kasper Schmeichel became the busiest man on the pitch as he attempted to repel the Germans as his defence disintegrated  in front of him.
Reflecting on a dismal evening against the Bundesliga giants, one-time goal hero Sutton said: “Players have to act sharper and smarter. Get streetwise, be mucky, break the game up, stop the opponents.
“Don’t just keep making the same mistakes. Brendan Rodgers was right, Dortmund were ruthless. But that’s top-level Champions League and losing goals in bunches is not a new phenomenon for Celtic.
“The manager does not deserve a caning for taking a positive approach into Dortmund. But he will if the offence is repeated and that begs the critical question: What comes next?
“It’s obvious Rodgers’ preferred way was stripped apart by Borussia and, for my money, Callum McGregor hit the nail on the head.

“The captain admitted that, within their learning curve, Celtic need to realise that when a game is getting away from them, they have to shut up shop for a spell to get through turbulent times.

TAKING IT ON THE CHIN…Callum McGregor in reflective pose.

“That, for me, is the key aspect from Tuesday to be acted upon.There have to be lessons from the way it ran away from them in Germany.”

The ex-England international frontman, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “In terms of Rodgers’ approach, again, I stress there’s nothing wrong with having an identity and philosophy, but there’s also nothing wrong with amending it to suit a scenario.

“I was at Villa Park on Wednesday and watched Unai Emery’s approach to beating Bayern Munich.

“That’s an English Premier League team spending vast sums of money, but it was 4-4-2 and the full-backs barely moved out of their own half. Struggling to beat an aggressive man-on-man press, they ended up just thrashing balls over the press trying to hit Ollie Watkins.

“Thirty-six per cent possession, yet a famous victory. There are levels in football and Emery felt he had to go that way to overcome a higher power.

“I sat at the Champions League Final just five months ago and Borussia were better than Real Madrid for the first-half. They have far superior players to Celtic. That’s just a fact.

“Rodgers’ team headed for Germany playing in a positive manner, being on the front foot and their pressing game was strong because of their good energy levels.

THE VICTOR AND THE VANQUISHED…Serhoud Guirassy celebrates as Kasper Schmeichel wonders what has hit him.

“With that in mind, it’s not tough to understand why Rodgers would consider taking the risk at kick-off of trying to impose that on Borussia.

“He clearly felt Celtic’s football could be better than Dortmund’s press. And vice versa. You can argue the rights and wrongs of that with hindsight.

“What can’t be argued is that, very quickly, it was apparent Celtic were not able to impose themselves and, indeed, the polar opposite was taking shape.

“That’s the moment when you have to address it because being adaptable in-game is crucial.

“Listening to him afterwards, I got the impression Rodgers did see it, but the players had lost their way in that painful first-period demise and the slide was irreversible, but someone had to sort it.

“Real Madrid are the most successful team on the planet when it comes to Champions League and Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t mind sitting in and soaking up some pressure to stay in games if it’s not going their way.

“Celtic famously beat Barcelona and hardly kicked the ball. My point is that Celtic, when the waves started crashing against them and it became clear Borussia were in the mood, just kept doing the same things and kept doing them progressively worse.”

Sutton added: “What has to happen next is that they fix it and make sure it doesn’t sap their confidence because, just as they weren’t world-beaters after beating Bratislava, they are not total duds after Dortmund.

“No-one expects or demands Rodgers rips up his ideals, but you do expect him now to implement some adaptation either pre-match or in-game to suit circumstance.

“Dortmund is being bracketed with the heavy defeats of his teams in the past in terms of him not learning, but I don’t entirely agree with that.

GLOOM IN GERMANY…Brendan Rodgers has a quick word with Callum McGregor as Yang Hyun-jun comes on for Nicolas Kuhn.

“This is a new side and, as I said, they had shown him enough to warrant the positive pre-game planning for this first big audition.

“But things are now different. The sobering experience has shown that Rodgers’ new team also aren’t ready to go toe-to-toe with the elite.

“Put simply, he doesn’t deserve to be hammered for finding that out. The criticism should come if the same mistakes are repeated.

“If the manager and his team fail to act upon clear evidence and put measures in place to try to counter it, any future stick will, in turn, be totally merited.”

The champions return to the domestic scene on Sunday when they go in search of their seventh Premiership win in the midday kick-off against Ross County.
Dingwall is a far cry from Dortmund, but it’s another test of character from McGregor and Co and they realise they cannot falter in their pursuit of their fourth successive title, thirteenth championship in 14 years and 55th crown in the team’s glorious history.
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