Without getting drawn into a war of words Brendan Rodgers quietly put Mark Warburton in to place following Celtic’s 1-0 win over Sevco at Hampden.
The scoreline is the only crumb of comfort for the former city trader- as he repeatedly ploughs through his video analysis it’s unlikely to get any better.
In ever ‘Key Performance Indicator’ the stats man will find his team outplayed, out passed and out anything else worthwhile.
Perhaps Clint Hill and Matt Gilks will make it through to the Champions League but there’s more chance of Warbo getting an invite to Christmas dinner with the Barton’s.
Rodgers knows his stuff, believes in stats and analysis but most importantly knows how to interpret what is going on in the pitch to ensure that his side have the best chance of winning.
It was those qualities that made him a Premier League manager at the age of 38 while Warbo was playing Fantasy Football during his lunch break as a city trader.
After hearing the excuses from Ibrox about the narrowing gap between the teams the Celtic boss was in the mood to set the record straight about his side’s semi-final win.
“We were dominant in the game,” Rodgers said. “I’m not massively into numbers and statistics but virtually every statistic on Sunday was actually better than the 5-1 game.
“We had more possession of the ball, we had more efforts on goal and had more corners.
“The only thing that was down was shots. We had eight shots on target on Sunday and in the 5-1 game we had nine.”
Rodgers could have mentioned the seven point lead, with a game in hand, that his side has over Sevco, his side’s Champions League campaign or the postponement of the home match with St Johnstone on November 26 to underline his case. Instead he lets his team do most of the talking.
