Brendan Rodgers last night admitted that he always feared Celtic’s insipid display against Kairat Almaty was in the post after a summer of underwhelming transfer activity.
The Parkhead side struggled to create any gilt-edged chances against the men from Kazakhstan and now face an uphill battle to reach the group stage in Tuesday’s return leg.
With the club still to sign direct replacements for Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn ahead of this £40million tie, supporters turned on the hierarchy with chants of ‘Sack the Board’ echoing around the stadium at full-time.
Asked if he feared that last night’s outcome was a possibility after his repeated pleas for fresh faces went unanswered, the manager said: ‘I think it was pretty clear. You didn’t need to look into the future too far.
‘You know these games are tough games and you want to have your best players in and have players in as quick as you can to tackle these sorts of situations.
‘But listen, it is what it is. And I just have to accept where it’s at.
The frustration of the Celtic boss was evident to all with his team so clearly lacking depth
Rodgers consoles midfielder Reo Hatate at full-time on a disappointing evening in Glasgow
Daizen Maeda played on the wing and up front but got no change from the Kazakh defence
‘We’ll now get ready for Saturday and then the long haul on Sunday. Then we’ll try and get through on Tuesday.’
Rodgers felt the takeaway from the match was no different to the position he’s stated since the transfer window opened.
‘I think that we need to improve the squad,’ he reiterated. ‘There was clarity around that for a long time. So, we see that. I think supporters see that.
‘We certainly do in football. We need to improve. And then from that, this is a performance club. And that starts on the field. And you do that with getting the very best players you possibly can to allow you to perform.’
Rodgers took a straight bat to questions over the disquiet that was audible all around the ground towards the end.
‘What I do know is, over many years, “sack the board” usually means “sack the manager”. It’s normally the manager that goes when that starts to be sung,’ he said.
Top brass Peter Lawwell and Michael Nicholson sit in the stand as fans sing ‘sack the board’
‘I can only really look at the players we have here and the performance. We’ve known for a long time what we’ve needed as a squad, so I don’t want to go into that.’
Asked if fans should accept how the club’s being run, he replied: ‘Well listen, that’s not for me to answer. I can answer for the team and what we’re doing.
‘We showed last season the hint on what we can do. But that will always be based around the level of players that we have. And I believe that with our level of play that we can really push forward.’
Rodgers was still dismayed at how ponderous his side were in the first period in particular. He added: ‘What I saw in the first half of the performance, we didn’t start with the intent and the mentality that we wanted to.
‘We were quite passive. The second half was better. We just couldn’t quite find the breakthrough offensive.’
Rodgers tries to get his message across to Idah during a first half that left the boss frustrated
Adam Idah was hooked at half-time after again struggling to make an impact up front, and Rodgers insisted the magnitude of the game meant he had to look at other options, with Yang Hyun-jun thrown on and Daizen Maeda switched to the middle.
‘Adam’s a good boy. He’s an honest boy,’ added Rodgers. ‘He hasn’t quite started how he would have liked. But in games like these here, I can’t afford to wait. And that’s why I made the change at half time.’
Rodgers also confirmed that defender Alistair Johnston is likely to face a period on the sidelines after being stretchered off on the first half.
‘I haven’t spoken to the medical guys yet, but it looks like a hamstring injury, which is disappointing,’ he said. ‘So, I’ll get more in on that.’
