Brendan Rodgers calls on Celtic's players to ignore outside noise

He is hoping that his players, whose ability and mentality have been repeatedly questioned by supporters and pundits during what has been a challenging season, adopt the same single-minded approach as they attempt to reclaim the Scottish title in the coming weeks and months.

Rodgers understands that playing for Celtic can be difficult when, as has very often been the case of late, performances and results fall some way short of what their tens of thousands of passionate supporters expect and demand.

However, he knows their destiny is, even though they have fallen two points behind their resurgent city rivals Rangers in the league table this month, still firmly in their own hands and remains convinced they can achieve their objectives if they block out any external negativity and concentrate on themselves.

READ MORE: Fit-again Alistair Johnston reveals Celtic's 'f*** it' mentality shift

“There will always be narratives around people and players, about what you have or haven’t done,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter. It’s an opinion and we always respect opinion. But ultimately it doesn’t really matter because you’re in control of that.

“There will be noise and people will look to affect it in various ways. But it doesn’t matter. You control your work and find a way to not listen and avoid the noise and focus on your performance. When you can do that, you write the story. My focus is purely on the football.”

Rodgers added: “It’s great if you can win by five, 10, 15, 20 points or whatever it was during my first time here. The reality is every season is not going to be like that. But this is a brilliant challenge to take on.

“It’s a real fight at the top of the league and we embrace that challenge and will go and enjoy it. The key thing is having that belief. Even before you play you need to believe and this is a club that has that belief. So let’s embrace it.”

READ MORE: Celtic injury latest as Brendan Rodgers confirms Maik Nawrocki knock

Callum McGregor and his team mates will need to draw on their reserves of mental strength in the coming weeks to deal with what promises to be a tense run-in – but Rodgers was greatly encouraged by his charges’ resolve in their hard-fought 3-1 triumph over Motherwell at Fir Park at the weekend.

Celtic were trailing 1-0 at half-time after playing poorly in the opening 45 minutes. However, they battered their hosts in the second half and ran out deserved 3-1 victors thanks to an Adam Idah double and a Luis Palma goal. 

“The mentality was very, very good,” said Rodgers. “It’s a case of just staying calm in the game. There are certain pictures in the game that, from a football perspective, were not ideal. But we were able to address that and cope with that. We nullified that in the second half and then it was much more like our game.

“For me, it’s mostly just about our own standards. That’s always been the case. From a consistency perspective we maybe haven’t been at the level we would have liked. And I’m not just talking about the results, I’m talking about the performances.

“I understand all of the factors as to the why, what that looks like and why it is. But, listen, we are where we are and as a team, you saw at the weekend, there’s belief there and they’re really united. When we can take our foot off the pedal then we can really go on and hurt teams. That’s the plan.

“I’ve been up here before when we’ve gone to Ibrox knowing if we lost the game we were maybe three points or six points behind. But we still played with freedom, quality and fight.  We cannot allow ourselves to overthink it. That’s what’s key. We just have to play our game and that’s the constant messaging. 

“The players are absolutely giving their all. They might not have been at their best, but they’re giving their best. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. We have some really important players working their way back who can really make the difference for us over these next few weeks. Hopefully you see the level grow again.”

READ MORE: Celtic boss Rodgers reveals 'sadness' over Lewis interview backlash

It was no coincidence that Celtic started to play far better against Motherwell when their talismanic centre half Cameron Carter-Vickers made his comeback from a month-long injury lay off after an hour.

Rodgers feels the United States internationalist, who has not suffered any adverse reaction to his outing at the weekend and is available for selection in the absence of Maik Nawrocki, is crucial to how he wants the defending Scottish champions to play and is optimistic that they can reproduce their second half display going forward.

“He’s been very important for this team,” he said. “He just knows football, he knows the game. I always say the centre back position is arguably the one position in the pitch where you have two players. When you see what he does when he comes in, he stabilises Scalesy (Liam Scales) or whoever he’s been playing with.

“If you’re not having to run in behind so much then it means you’re on the attack more. But, too often this season, he hasn’t been there, so teams have maybe been getting up the sides a little bit more. Having him back really solidifies that and gives confidence to the team. It’s really important for us to keep him fit.” 

READ MORE: Jane Lewis breaks silence on Brendan Rodgers Celtic interview

It is really important for Celtic to pick up where they left off against Motherwell in the game with Dundee this evening and make headlines for the right reasons. 

“We’ve wasted too much time in games, waiting instead of creating,” he said. “So that’s a mentality shift. It’s important that we go in with the same idea, to dominate from the very first whistle. You know you’re not going to have it all your own way but you’ve got to go and impose yourselves.”