Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is ready to give his academy players a chance to shine in tonight’s home match against Partick Thistle as he continues to juggle his squad to cope with the hectic festive fixture schedule.
Rodgers made five alterations to his starting line-up from last midweek’s victory over Hamilton for the win over Dundee on Saturday, and he looks set to ring the changes again this evening.
As part of that tinkering, he is hoping to give opportunities to some of his brightest prospects from the Celtic youth academy to see if the youngsters can handle the step up to first-team football.
Rodgers believes that it is his duty to do so as the manager of a club who have traditionally prided themselves on rearing their own talent.
“I probably will look at some young players,” Rodgers said. “Coming here, my vision was based on three fundamental principles. One – to win as many titles as we possibly can. Two – to win by playing an attacking, aggressive brand of football. Three – to have young players from the academy base in here. We’ve had some players in but it would be nice to look at one or two of the others and see how they cope with the pressure.
“That’s always been my way. I look for the now but I look to the future as well, so there may be an opportunity for one or two of the younger boys on Tuesday.
“My vision coming here fundamentally was to win trophies, play attacking football the Celtic way and to bring young players through. We’ve had a number of players from the youth team training with us and doing very well.
“This is what building a club is about, creating the hope for the youth players. If they don’t think they can play then why should you have an academy?
“But they have to be ready - not totally ready, of course - and show the ingredients that they can come in and play in the first team. That’s very important to a big club.”
20-year-old Moussa Dembele found himself out of Rodger's starting eleven on Saturday – as he did in the match against Partick Thistle at Firhill last Friday – and the Celtic manager conceded that the striker has gone a little off the boil in recent weeks.
“You get that with every player whether you’re 19 or 20 or you’re 28 or 29,” he said. “You’re never going to get to be perfect in every game.
“I had the same thing with [Philippe] Coutinho at 19, with [Raheem] Sterling at 17 and Joe Allen at 19. When you’re looking to play over 60 games a season then you just can’t – as much as you want to – physically do it. I have the luxury of being able to put one in and bring one out.
“Moussa and Leigh have different skill sets but they both bring big qualities to the team. Leigh’s in and scoring and the team is winning.”
That they are, but there was an unmistakable edginess creeping in at Celtic Park on Saturday as Dundee belatedly made a fist of a game where they had been second-best for the most part by the length of London Road.
“Yes, but it wouldn’t matter if you were Barcelona, there would be edginess,” Rodgers said. “It’s not the supporters, it’s life, it’s the game. When you are so dominant they would prefer to see you scoring goals but the supporters have been amazing here.
“They now understand what we’re trying to do. I was more worried at the beginning of the season against Hapoel when the nerves were kicking in after 15 minutes, which you don’t need.
“Now they understand what they’re seeing and how we’re trying to work and they really respect that but, of course, at 2-1 there’s always a wee bit of anxiety there near the end.”
Thistle are likely to deploy similar tactics to both Dundee and Hamilton did before them when they visit Glasgow’s East End this evening, hoping to keep it tight for as long as possible and feed off any anxiety they can create among the natives.
You might expect that the Celtic manager would tire of facing up to the challenges of setting a team out to break down a defensive barricade, but far from it.
“It’s brilliant,” he said. “Every manager, every coach has a different way. If that’s the philosophy of the opponent then you have to find the way to break that down and I enjoy that challenge. I enjoy that strategic look at the game. How can we play against that? That’s why it’s so important that my team plays out of different systems because eventually, when we get in the flow of our game, then it forces teams back and we create chances and normally score goals.
“So if teams block out that space then you have to find a different way. The beauty of us now – and there’s still a way to go – the tactical flexibility within the team is very good. We can play different structures, different ways.”
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