Brendan Rodgers had never lost a domestic competition as Celtic manager during his first stint at the club. Three games into his second run at Parkhead and that is no longer the case. The Northern Irishman saw his team being knocked out of the Scottish League Cup at the weekend, following a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Kilmarnock away at Rugby Park.
It is not the start to the season that Rodgers would have been hoping for. And unfortunately, he has bigger worries coming up.
Celtic’s biggest problem right now is their injury list. They have a number of key players sitting on the sidelines. Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alistair Johnston, Stephen Welsh, Maik Nawrocki and Reo Hatate are all unavailable at the moment.
That is not ideal for Rodgers’ plans. Especially with the first Glasgow Derby of the season set to be played early next month, and that too away at Ibrox.
Rodgers admits frustration at Celtic situation
It is only natural for Rodgers to be frustrated with the injury situation at Parkhead right now. As reported by The Scotsman, the manager told Celtic TV:
"“It’s very frustrating.“Obviously, you want to have your best players available and clearly that’s not the case for us. But you have to get on with it. It’s just been the nature over the course of pre-season. We just have to deal with it, we’ve got lots of capable players in the squad and I’m sure they will step up.”"
It goes without saying that Celtic will have a tough time coping without so many of their key first-team players. And Rodgers has not been helped by the club’s transfer activity over the summer.
Celtic have brought in six new faces to the club. But one could argue that all of them are project signings and not ready to be starters at this point in time.
On the other hand, they have lost important stars like Jota and Carl Starfelt. So, it could easily be said that the starting XI is weaker now than it was last season. Add to that the fact that most of the players are still coming to grips with Rodgers’ brand of football.