CELTIC put their undefeated domestic record on the line again tonight but last week’s performance against Motherwell showed that even when they are down they are never beaten. At Fir Park they were losing 2-0 at half-time and 3-2 down midway through the second half and still found a way to come back to win. Most of the credit for that must go to Brendan Rodgers for this was a match Celtic would likely have lost last season under Ronny Deila.

Rodgers has transformed the Parkhead side in so many ways but this was the first time in a domestic game that he has shown he can also be effective in adversity. Even when they were behind at half-time he didn’t go in to the dressing room to shout at the players. He just very calmly told them their performance hadn’t been good enough and here was how they were going to change it and win the match. And it worked.

He switched to a 3-4-3 formation with a diamond and sacrificed Callum McGregor at left-back after bringing him on after 30 minutes to replace Emilio Izaguirre who had been getting a bit of a roasting. He told the team to play higher up the pitch and not worry about the opposition, just focus on scoring goals. That completely changed the game. The next day I was chatting to Keith Lasley and he told me Motherwell had become disoriented. In the first half they were locked on to the Celtic midfielders and everyone knew their role within the team. But when Celtic took a man out of defence to give them an extra midfielder Motherwell didn’t know which one of them was to go and engage the spare man. And so they started dropping back and Celtic exploited the gaps.

I worked under various managers during my playing days who would make tactical alterations during a game but normally as a form of damage limitation when we were up against a better side that was dominating us. But Rodgers showed he can make changes with a view to going on to win a game from a losing position. He wasn’t thinking, “we’re two down, how can I prevent us from getting a thumping?” He didn’t think about sending on another defensive midfielder or an extra defender. Instead he influenced the game by deciding that Celtic would be going on the front foot and trying to score as many goals as it would take to win it.

Changing a match mid-flow is not as easy as it might seem. I’ve been in games where information has come on to the pitch – maybe a team-mate has been passed a piece of paper – and there’s confusion as to everyone’s roles and where they’re meant to be playing. Often five to 10 minutes would pass and the information still hadn’t properly filtered through. Rodgers’ ability to see how things are unfolding and then being proactive and clear with his changes mark him out as an excellent manager. And Celtic have players both good and intelligent enough to properly implement his plans.

For me, man-management is Rodgers’ best asset. The players love him and believe in what he says. He has great communication and motivational skills, he keeps his emotions in check, he’s well-mannered and he builds relationships with players. And you can see the effect that is having on the squad.

You look at the performances of Scott Brown, James Forrest and Tom Rogic this season, and Brown in particular. After Celtic lost the Scottish Cup semi-final to Rangers in April, I thought he looked a shell of himself. He was regressing under Deila and wasn’t the player he was. He seemed to have lost his spark and his bite. But this season both have come back in spades. You always see him and Rodgers in conversation and the manager has made him feel like the key man at the club again. For me, Scott Brown is the player of the year in Scotland so far and a lot of that is down to Rodgers.

Forrest was always really inconsistent but this year he has reached a level I didn’t think he could get to. He’s contributing with goals and assists, he’s more mature and looks more assured in the transition from defence to attack. And Rogic now looks like an unbelievable creative force who is playing with such confidence. That all comes from the belief that Rodgers has given them. There were 10 players who started in the recent cup final who were at the club last season and that shows how much this season’s progression comes down to the manager’s man-management skills. He has shown he can get the best out of every one of them.

I worked under Owen Coyle at Burnley and he had a lot of the same skillset. We had a tiny squad when we got promoted but he made everyone believe in him, in each other, in ourselves, in our tactics and so on. We played an attacking style of football and I can see similarities between the pair in terms of character. But I would say Rodgers’ game management is maybe a step ahead. He makes it all look so easy and this feels just like the start of big things for him and Celtic.