The serious reason behind Brendan Rodgers' Hampden slip as Celtic boss' smile hid how he was REALLY feeling

When his Tom Fords slid beneath him inside Celtic’s technical area at Hampden on Saturday, Brendan Rodgers let out a laugh.

He was still smiling as he gave Kevin Clancy a cuddle even though the referee was waving a yellow card in his face. But deep down there was a very serious reason behind the 51-year-old’s semi final slip-up. It all came about because he had spotted exactly the kind of slackness and sloppiness which might see his side being crucified in the killing fields of the Champions League by another bunch of big guns from the Bundesliga.

That’s why Rodgers lashed out at a stray ball bobbling towards his designer shoes. It was an act born of sheer frustration. And it’s why Celtic’s players will take to the field against RB Leipzig on Tuesday with the same warnings ringing in their ears. Rodgers was hammering it out again as he faced the media ahead of matchday four - and explaining why he lost the rag even as his side were romping through Aberdeen and into the first domestic final of the season at the weekend.

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He said: “That's the link to me getting booked at the weekend. As I said to the players, I'm always thinking about the bigger picture. If you’re loose with your passing domestically we might not get punished. But at this level, you will do. So be clean, be precise, play with speed on the ball.”

Rodgers has been around this particular block enough times to know that carelessness comes at an eye watering cost. When his players began to malfunction in Dortmund - and to lose that precision and composure from their play - they ended up on the end of such a hiding that it came into the category of humiliation. Rodgers went on: “This is a team whose mindset is to improve and to be better. We knew we needed to be better after that game - me included.”

This is a manager with a serious aversion to being made to look as if he’s out of his depth at the elite level or any other for that matter. Which is why, on reflection, he knew he had to hand out some tactical water wings ahead of last month’s trip to face Atalanta in Bergamo.

On that night, Celtic were sharper, tighter and more diligent all over the pitch before leaving Lombardy with a precious Group Phase point as well as a reputation enhanced. And Rodgers freely admits he relishes the opportunity to pit his tactical wits against the best from across the continent.

He said: “We're playing against a lot of teams that are superior to us and from superior leagues. That challenge in itself is absolutely great - trying to find ways in which to gain the results that can bring you to your end point. It's an amazing competition to be involved in. Yes, you have some games where you have to take your medicine. But I'm pretty sure it's all learning and it's no different for yourself,” he continued while pointing to the assembled media.

“I'm pretty sure you don't write your articles first up all the time. I'm sure you draw your line through some pieces of paper and whatever else. Well, we're exactly the same. We learn - we hope to be better and to improve. So certainly from a manager's perspective, it's a really exciting level to be involved in.”

The lessons learned are likely to be invaluable again tonight when Leipzig come to town after getting their own domestic campaign off to a flyer. Marco Rose’s side currently sit in second spot behind Bayern Munich having amassed 20 Bundesliga points from their opening nine games.

And Rodgers was keen yesterday to stress just how dangerous they are likely to be - as they look to get their first Champions League points on the board following defeats to Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool. He said: “Against Atalanta our players showed what they could do against a really, really top attacking team. So, we'll need to do that again tomorrow.

“There's going to be times where we're going to be able to press again and be really aggressive on it. There's going to be moments where we have to be controlled in that and then look to play and cause them a problem when we have the ball.

“You have to have that resilience because the top teams will push you back. You can go with the idea - whatever idea it is you want - but you know at moments in games you're going to have to defend and you have to have that organisation and have that resilience to be able to do that.

“So, I think that what Atalanta proved to the players at the very highest level, we can do that, but it really takes a big concentration. It takes a big commitment and it takes a togetherness in order to do that because the team together, how they moved, how they were all synchronised in their actions and moving up the pitch and being tight and filling in spaces, they were very, very good.

“So, it will be the same tomorrow, but you need moments of that and then that earns you the right to then play. It’s clearly going to be a difficult challenge but we know what we can do here. We know we can score goals. We know we can create goals. And we want to make it as difficult as we possibly can for them.”

And, of course, it’ll rage from end to end as it usually does on nights like these against the backdrop of a packed out, breathless Celtic Park. After back-to-back home wins in this competition against Feyenoord and Slovan Bratislava,spanning two separate campaigns, it is the manager’s intention to turn the old place back into a European fortress.

He went on: “It's just time. I think what is important is to have a good mood. I think the mood is great at the moment. That's why I give gratitude to the supporters after the Dortmund game because when we walked over at the end, which was on the back end of a tough evening, they stayed with the team. They were with the team. They'd seen what we'd been doing up until that point.

“We hope to prove that that was just a night where we just weren't at our best and we got heavily punished for it. But we've shown that we can learn. Then, like you say, getting results and getting results here can build that mindset again. Let's see if we can keep this mood going and keep that feeling going.”

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