Brendan Rodgers responds to Celtic fans’ boos at full-time

The Scottish Premiership had been somewhat of a walk in the park for Brendan Rodgers. Every Celtic fan will remember the Invincible season. Well, things are not going as smoothly for the Northern Irish manager this time around. In fact, he already finds himself under quite a bit of pressure.

After Celtic were knocked out of the Scottish League Cup in the second round last weekend, fans would have been looking for a positive performance at home to St Johnstone. Instead, what they got was an uninspiring goalless draw.

There are now serious questions about this team. Many fans are even starting to compare this to the 2020/21 season when the squad had stagnated and the new signings failed to deliver. As a result, Celtic finished trophyless and 25 points behind the Rangers in the league.

It might be a bit too early to go that far. But there was a chorus of boos at full-time of the 0-0 draw against St Johnstone. Rodgers would have heard them quite clearly.

Rodgers responds to Celtic fans’ boos at full-time

As reported by 67 Hail Hail, when asked about the boos, Rodgers told BBC Radio Scotland:

"“I totally understand it. When you play to that performance level and get a result at home against any team, you’re playing a team with the greatest respect that haven’t won many games and have conceded goals, to not score or get three points is clearly not what we want or the supporters expect.“You play or manage a club like this here you have to have that personality to gain results. If not the flak will come your way and you have to take that and work to make it better. It’s still very early in the season but you can see there’s lots of work to do.”"

It is quite clear that a lot of work needs to be done moving forward. This does not look like a treble-winning team, but one that is playing together for the first time this season.

Of course, it would a mistake to overlook all the injuries that they are dealing with at the moment. Key players like Cameron Carter-Vickers, Reo Hatate, Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh are out. Alistair Johnston only returned this weekend. Jota and Carl Starfelt have left the club altogether.

Celtic fans can take some hope from the 2021 Deadline Day, when the club signed Carter-Vickers, Jota and Giorgos Giakoumakis. The Hoops certainly need a repeat of that, if they are to bring this season back on track.