Chris Sutton sends clear Arsenal message to Celtic boss

Brendan Rodgers' reaction to the 7-1 defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund have been interesting. While most fans have called for a more pragmatic approach against top teams in Europe moving forward, the Celtic manager does not appear to have any plans of changing things up and is hoping that his side use this as a learning experience to get better.

On one hand, it is easy to understand why Rodgers might not be keen to change the team's style for one-off games. It is very difficult to make that level of adjustment.

Seldom do Celtic need to sit back in domestic competition. So, if they do that in Europe, a lot of players will not be playing their natural games and most would not have been recruited with those characteristics in mind.

It is a puzzle more than anything else. But it is not an impossible one to solve. Just look at what Arsenal did in the second half against Manchester City after seeing one of their players being sent off.

Chris Sutton sends clear Arsenal message to Celtic boss

Chris Sutton cited the example of Arsenal when talking about Celtic's situation. He wrote in his column in the Daily Record:

"He clearly felt Celtic’s football could be better than Dortmund’s press. And vice versa. You can argue the rights and wrongs of that with hindsight.

What can’t be argued is that, very quickly, it was apparent Celtic were not able to impose themselves and, indeed, the polar opposite was taking shape. That’s the moment when you have to address it because being adaptable in-game is crucial.

Listening to him afterwards, I got the impression Rodgers did see it, but the players had lost their way in that painful first-period demise and the slide was irreversible, but someone had to sort it.

I’ll use an example of Arsenal. Most of us would agree they are an aggressive, offensive team who are easy on the eye when things are working for them. But Mikel Arteta and his players seem quick to understand when a tide is turning against them. The most obvious example came this season when going down to 10 men against Manchester City.

At that point, Arsenal changed their plan."

Sutton further went on to add regarding the matter:

"Real Madrid are the most successful team on the planet when it comes to Champions League and Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t mind sitting in and soaking up some pressure to stay in games if it’s not going their way. Celtic famously beat Barcelona and hardly kicked the ball. My point is that Celtic, when the waves started crashing against them and it became clear Borussia were in the mood, just kept doing the same things and kept doing them progressively worse."

That is actually some exceptional analysis from Sutton. Not much else needs to be said after that. He summed the situation perfectly.

If Celtic are to be successful in Europe. They will need to know how to adapt their game depending upon the situation. There is not much point in them trying to play their brand of football when things are not working and they are playing themselves into trouble. If they can make those in-game adjustments, they will get better in the Champions League.