Bullish Brendan Rodgers insists he’s no dreamer – but the defiant Celtic boss is adamant he won’t change his football philosophies despite another Champions League nightmare in Dortmund.
The Hoops gaffer is still smarting from the brutal 7-1 bashing BVB dished out to his team at the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday night. The Scottish champions marched into that clash with the Bundesliga giants on the crest of the wave after an undefeated domestic start at home. But Rodgers claims he was never naive enough to discount the possibility of his side suffering a big defeat to Nuri Sahin’s lethal line-up.
What the Northern Irishman is prepared to dismiss is any notion that he may rethink the aggressive tactics that took his team to last year’s double triumph, even though they were also directly involved in his team being so exposed in Germany. Rodgers said: “I’m experienced enough to know that when the stakes are high and you get high-level competition, that sometimes you have to expect defeat.
“If you don’t, you’re a dreamer. And if you dream in management, you won’t be in it long. It’s great for everyone to dream, and for critics to look and think what the scores might be. But as a manager, at times against the Champions League finalists, you might expect that you might actually lose. But we’ll learn from it and be better for it.”
The critics have been lining up to take pops at Rodgers after his team’s latest Champions League collapse. His side also shipped seven to Barcelona and PSG during his first Parkhead stint and there was a six-goal shellacking away to Atletico Madrid last term. But the former Liverpool and Leicester gaffer would much rather square up to the top teams prepared to have a go than meekly accept an inevitable defeat.
That might not fill the Parkhead faithful with confidence as they look ahead to their Bergamo showdown with Europa League winners Atalanta later this month. But Rodgers reckons his gameplan can succeed if his men stick to it – and cut out the mistakes which were so costly in Germany.
Asked for his response to the critics, he said: “I’m not really bothered. That’s my honest answer. You can’t turn a tap off and on. If you analyse the game, you’ll see that we were trying to press the game in the static position and then fall back into shape. But that wasn’t to the level that we wanted on the evening. But we play how we play.
“It’s the same performances over the last number of months that allowed us to go into this game with this incredible optimism. You can’t just turn the tap back off and say you’ve become super defensive. That’s not how we play.
“So what do we do? Sit back, have 15 percent of the ball and probably lose 3-0, 4-0? Or do you play how you play but know that the mistakes, you’ve got to sharpen your teeth in and you’ve got to be better in, you’ve got to make quicker movements to close space. And all those things are a learning process.
“I’d much rather do that and go down with my own vision than by someone who’s saying that he’s never coached a game in their life or played third or done whatever. So I respect the opinion but I don’t listen to it and never have.”
He added: “I’m not daft. I hear all the words, pragmatism and all this sort of stuff. And whatever else gets thrown at teams that want to play. We don’t play that way to lose. We play to win. And we also know that there are certain games and certain opponents that you have to adjust to.
“But I’ve never been a coach in the main that will sit back and want to defend, defend, defend and lose 3-0. I’d rather impose a way of working to win the game.
“But also knowing, as I said before the game, that the quality of a team, no matter what your philosophy is, the quality of a team will push you back. And I think that our game the other night was a classic example of that.”