Brendan Rodgers adamant Celtic buck stops with him and sports scientists will NEVER pick his team
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers admits he has ‘empathy’ for under-fire Rangers rival Philipe Clement - but insists he’d never let boffins pick his team.
Rodgers was speaking at the club’s Lennoxtown HQ at lunchtime as the clock ticked down to the latest Old Firm showdown at Ibrox on January 2. And while he says he feels for Clement as the Belgian battles to keep his head off the chopping block, he made it clear he wouldn’t go down the same sports science led route which has created festive chaos on the other side of the city.
Clement has confessed to letting the data crunchers dictate the make up of his starting XI as Rangers dropped five points in two Premiership games at St Mirren and Motherwell. But, when asked for his own view on the debate, Celtic boss Rodgers made it clear that the buck must always stop with the manager when it comes to team selection.
He said: “It's like any sector of my club, whether it's coaching, medicine, sports science, our welfare team. I'm always there to listen but ultimately you make the judgement as a manager - that's what you get paid for. You get paid as a manager to listen to opinions but ultimately the beauty of being a coach and a leader is that you decide. I've got a brilliant sports science team here that will give me all the information I ever need if I want it. And like in anything, I'm open to it - but I'm not driven by it.
“I'm driven by talking with players and getting a feel for them because we all have moments in our life that you may not want to do something. But you get somehow dragged to it and you go 'okay' and then you quite enjoy it. So for me it's more about feeling. I repeat, I've got a brilliant sports science team that knows how we work and we know we have to push players sometimes.
“It might not sit well and might not look nice on a number, but this game is an art, and it's about feeling and emotion and it's about working with the players and sometimes pushing them over a hill when perhaps they don't want to go there. But that push gets them over and when they get to the other side, it's a great place.”
Rodgers, though, knows the pressure is mounting on Clement ahead of this latest derby D-day.
And he said: “I have empathy for every manager and coach because until the curtains go back and the spotlight is on you, you can never ever even begin to imagine what it feels like. People can sit so close to you and be there, but until you’re charged with leading a team and club and what comes with that, then you’ll never truly get the grasp of it and what it means. So, for every coach and manager – particularly every manager – I have real empathy for.
“Because at times you’re biting your tongue. You’re having to listen or acknowledge people that couldn’t manage their way out of an empty room. And you have to bite your tongue. But all you can do and understand and know about football management is that all the words mean nothing…you deliver on the pitch. Your actions, your deeds on the pitch is what brings you success. That’s all you need to worry about. So, going back initially, yes I have empathy for every manager and coach that’s in the position.”
