'Game is an art': Brendan Rodgers lifts lid on sports science at Celtic after Rangers calls put it in focus

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers admits that sports science plays an important part in modern-day football - but it does not have an overriding say on team selection.

The application of sports science has come into sharp focus across Scottish football this week after Rangers boss Philippe Clement rested a number of players for the 2-2 draw with Motherwell, citing fatigue and data from his backroom team amid a testing schedule.

That result for Rangers left them trailing Celtic by 14 points in the Premiership, with Clement coming under mounting criticism for his team’s festive results - including a 2-1 defeat by St Mirren on Boxing Day.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has also rotated his squad this season. | SNS Group

Ahead of the January 2 Old Firm derby between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox, Rodgers - who has himself rotated his squad throughout this season - was asked for his thoughts on sports science and how it is used by the club.

"It's like any sector of my club, whether it's coaching, medicine, sports science, our welfare team,” responded Rodgers. “I'm always there to listen, but ultimately you make the judgement as a manager - that's what you get paid for. You get paid as a manager to listen to opinions, but ultimately the beauty of being a coach and a leader is that you decide.

“I've got a brilliant sports science team here that will give me all the information I ever need if I want it, and like in anything, I'm open to it - but I'm not driven by it. I'm driven by talking with players and getting a feel for them, because we all have moments in our life that you may not want to do something, but you get somehow dragged to it and you go 'okay' and you quite enjoy it.

“So for me it's more about feeling. I repeat, I've got a brilliant sports science team that knows how we work and we know we have to push players sometimes. It might not sit well and might not look nice on a number, but this game is an art, and it's about feeling and emotion, and it's about working with the players and sometimes pushing them over a hill when perhaps they don't want to go there. But that push gets them over and when they get to the other side, it's a great place.”

Rangers manager Philippe Clement. | SNS Group

Asked if instinct and knowledge of players is ultimately the key, Rodgers added: "Yeah, your instinct, your experience ... like I said, I listen to all my departments in terms of the information that I need. So I'll be informed by it, but not driven by it. The game's about people.

“All the players here, they work ever so hard. I change the team around to keep the energy, keep that enthusiasm in the team and the team has responded brilliantly to that. The game has to be about the emotions and the feel and how the players are.”