Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: We are dropping too many points

After a 1-1 draw against Aberdeen at Pittodrie, Rodgers tells him team to discover greater consistency

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is striving for greater consistency after his side’s winning run came to an end at Pittodrie.

The cinch Premiership champions won six matches in a row after losing back-to-back league games in December but could only manage a 1-1 draw against an Aberdeen side who sacked manager Barry Robson in midweek. The setback allowed Rangers to cut the gap at the top of the table to three points with Philippe Clement’s side having a game in hand. With Rangers hosting Aberdeen on Tuesday, Celtic could be knocked off the top of the table before travelling to Easter Road on Wednesday.

Rodgers said: “There’s still a long way to go, many points to play for, to fight for. We just have to concentrate on ourselves and find a greater consistency. Up until the break we had some really good performances, real good speed in our game, but we have to do that every game. Last week we weren’t so good but we get the win. (Saturday) we weren’t so good and ended up drawing. We have to find that consistent level because we are dropping too many points.”

Celtic's Callum McGregor shakes hands with Brendan Rodgers after the 1-1 draw with Aberdeen.

The Celtic fans at Pittodrie vented their anger against the board after a transfer window that saw the club bring in Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn, who came on just before the hour mark and combined for the latter to score the equaliser. But deficiencies were evident as Celtic struggled to stamp their authority on the game after a one-sided but goalless first half.

Left-back Alexandro Bernabei’s stray pass sparked the counter-attack that led to Bojan Miovski’s opener after the North Macedonia international cut inside Maik Nawrocki, who was perhaps fortunate not to later receive a second yellow card and also gifted Connor Barron a shot at goal with a poor clearance.

Kuhn looked a real threat but Celtic were short of match-winning options from the bench having moved on David Turnbull and Mikey Johnston. With Greg Taylor, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate on the injured list, Rodgers will be keen to get Asian Cup participants Daizen Maeda, Oh Hyeon-gyu and Yang Hyun-jun back.

“I thought first half we were OK, created opportunities, just needed to be more clinical,” he said. “You could sense Aberdeen’s results haven’t gone so well so their confidence was maybe low. We had to exploit that but didn’t quite do it. Second half I didn’t think we were aggressive enough. When you are playing the type of team we were playing, you have to be good in first, second and third balls then settle the game and be good on your counter-pressing to stop the counter-attack.

“For the goal we gave away, we were loose in our pass and they broke with too much ease and then we don’t defend what their striker does best, he wants to come in on his left foot. We made changes and Nic gets his goal but it becomes too much of a basketball game. That’s not how we play, we have to play with more authority than that. Sadly, we weren’t able to create enough opportunities to win the game.”