Brendan Rodgers insists the final say on Celtic team selection will always rest with him — and not his backroom staff.
Ahead of Thursday’s Old Firm derby at Ibrox that could see his side move 17 points clear at the top, Rodgers credited the work done by his medical and sports science team but made clear the buck stops with him when it comes to the starting line-up.
His Rangers counterpart Philippe Clement has come in for criticism after choosing to rest several of his first-team regulars – including Vaclav Cerny and Hamza Igamane – for Sunday’s draw with Motherwell following recommendations made by his support staff.
Rodgers, though, felt it was a manager’s job to make those big decisions and that sometimes ‘feeling and emotion’ outweighed scientific reason when it came to deciding whether a player was ready to feature or not.
‘It’s like any sector of my club, whether it’s coaching, medicine, sports science or our welfare team,’ said the manager. ‘I’m always there to listen, but ultimately you make the judgment 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.
Manager Brendan Rodgers says that he gets paid to make the big decisions at Celtic
Rodgers speaks to his Celtic squad on Tuesday ahead of the Old Firm derby at Ibrox
The Celtic squad, led my skipper Callum McGregor (right) were in good spirits in training
‘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 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.
‘[It’s about] your instinct, your experience… like I said, I listen to all my department 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 emotional and the feel and how the players are.’
Rodgers heads to Ibrox looking to enhance his near impeccable record against Rangers, having lost only once in 20 fixtures against his biggest rivals. That stands in stark contrast to Clement who is still seeking his first derby win after six fruitless attempts.
Celtic are the current holders now of all three domestic trophies and in good shape to go on to clinch another treble and progress in the Champions League. But Rodgers believes it is the derby results that most clearly define a manager’s legacy in Glasgow.
‘It is where you are judged at this level, working at Celtic or Rangers – I think you are judged in these games’ added Rodgers. ‘I saw Giovanni van Bronckhorst get to a European final and then lose his job not long after because he was losing to Celtic.
‘That is a huge measure here of any manager and I’m fully aware of that, I always have been. Winning is very, very important. Winning against your greatest rivals is very important and the progress of your club is important.
‘I’m excited by [this game], excited by the preparation and what the team can deliver. We want to go in there with a professional mindset and work how we have been working – consistently well – and feel the pressure but play under the pressure. This is what we train for.’
Rodgers says that despite the 14-point gap, the Old Firm derby is not a dead rubber
Thursday’s derby is different from the point of view that for once there is little tangible at stake given Celtic could lose to Rangers and still preside over an 11-point advantage at the halfway stage in the championship.
Rodgers, though, dismissed the notion that it eases the pressure on either him or his players as they head to Ibrox to play once more without the backing of their supporters, still shut out from the fixture.
‘I don’t think there is any less stress,’ he added. ‘I hear the talk about a “dead rubber”. There is never a Rangers-Celtic game that’s a dead rubber – not in my book.
‘The gap really doesn’t come into it, I have to say. I went there last season under pressure and all those things. Now I go there with a 14-point lead. But there’s no change for us, the mentality is to go and perform and look to play our game.
‘That pressure will always be there and especially a game at Ibrox with no Celtic supporters. But that makes it even better. You want to win every game and you want to perform at the very best level. It’s an iconic game and one that I always want to win.’
