Brendan Rodgers defends Celtic star amid fan grumbles, hails prospect 'with culture' and has say on mentality

Brendan Rodgers basked in his Celtic team’s mentality as they came from behind to defeat Hibs 3-1 at Parkhead.

Rodgers hailed his players for recovering strongly to the concession of Martin Boyle’s 25th-minute opener for the visitors, with goals from Nicolas Kuhn, Adam Idah and Reo Hatate clinching victory in Celtic’s first home match since being crowned Premiership champions.

The Northern Irishman believes it would have been easy for his team to coast on a sun-kissed day at Glasgow and revealed he has set his players targets in the two remaining leagues matches away at Aberdeen and at home to St Mirren.

Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn were on target in Celtic's win over Hibs. | SNS Group

Asked what pleased him against Hibs, Rodgers said: “Just the mentality of the team. I think a day like today, a beautiful day, if we'd really won the league it would have been so easy, just to turn up and not play with that tempo and intensity.

“As I said to the players before, this club is all about building on your past success, not dwelling on it. Two weeks ago you were a champion, we have a chance in two weeks' time to gain another title. We need to build on the other two by keeping our rhythm, keeping our mentality to arrive for the Scottish Cup in a really good place.

“But the work we did as a team today, that was the difference. To be a team of dominance, you need to counter-press the game. Against a team like Hibs who are very, very good, you see it so many times when they defend well, like they've done, then they break out.

“We speed and pace, and the strikers up front, they can be a real handful. But today, how we pressed the game from the first minute to the end, made me so proud of the team. Just that ethic and mentality to win, and then that gave us the platform to play our football.”

Celtic goal record comes into view

Celtic matched the goal tally of 106 set by Rodgers’ Invincibles in the 2016/17 campaign and are five off the all-time record of the Lisbon Lions back in 1966/67 term.

“I’ve been setting many targets for them,” continued Rodgers. “Of course, going into this block of games, we had items that we wanted to achieve. I think there was a record number of goals at home, which was 62 in a league season, when Martin [O’Neill] was at 2003/04.

“So we're now on 61, with one game to go. So we'll be hungry to make Trophy Day special, but I’ve also given them targets to achieve beyond winning the trophies, and so you see the hunger in the team in order to achieve those.”

Adam Idah gets strong Celtic defence

Rodgers praised his striker Idah, who missed some presentable chances before claiming his 19th goal on the stroke of half time. His profligacy brought some groans from the Celtic faithful, but his manager is more than happy with the 24-year-old’s contribution.

“Adam's been fantastic for us in his first season,” said Rodgers. “He's only going to get better and better. I think the thing with Adam is, what probably the crowd and people see is, when we've played with strikers like Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda, they're so explosive.

“They're so off the mark, the exhilaration is incredible. He has power and he has speed also. You see his movement to get in, but he's a different type of striker. His contribution over the course of the season has been so, so important for us. Not just domestically, but at the highest level. One striker cannot play all the games that we play, but I've been really pleased for him.

“Arne Engels doesn't score so many goals, but again, a young player that's coming in, 21 years of age, you see his work rate today, you see his running, you see his authority in the game. He's not going to be a player that's going to get 20, 25 goals. That's not why we brought him in. We brought him in to develop him, improve him, but that physicality is so important, especially at the highest level.

“[Defender Auston] Trusty coming in, playing off the wrong side. Hasn't been playing for a wee while, he was good in the game. So, yeah, overall, I think it was a real, real collective high-level performance.”

Brendan Rodgers was so pleased to give Sean McArdle his debut. | SNS Group

Rodgers gave a debut to 17-year-old academy graduate Sean McArdle off the bench and explained why the teenager has been given a role in the first team.

“He's done really well in the B team,” said Rodgers. “He’s only 17 years of age. It was to give him that feel. I want him to have personality, even though he's only on 10, 12 minutes, whatever it was. And he showed that.

“I like him. He's got decent legs. He's got a nice football brain, he’s left-sided. He's got culture when he plays. And now he's got the best role models you could have in some of the players that we have here, like Callum [McGregor] and these guys, to learn from.

“But it gives him a little reward for the good work that he's done. Now he's got to continue learning and see what comes from it.”