Was there a better Celtic player last night than Thomas Rogne?
The 21-year-old started just his fourth game of the season and breezed through the 90 minutes with the composure of a veteran.
Given the task of marking Nikita Jelavic, who was watched by Roy Hodgson and Davie Moyes, the value of the Croatian plummeted over the course of 90 minutes as Rogne and Charlie Mulgrew won every battle.
Anyone watching to see what all the fuss is about the £5m rated striker would surely have noted the disciplined performance of the young Norwegian.
Like all of his team-mates Rogne didn’t have the best of days during last season’s League Cup final defeat from Rangers but that was no basis for writing him off.
When Celtic started the new year at Ibrox it was Rogne and Daniel Majstorovic that shut out Kenny Miller as Georgios Samaras notched a double.
Injuries rather than ability have been Rogne’s biggest obstacle since joining Celtic two years ago but last night’s display vindicated Lennon’s belief in the young defender.
“The main concern was the back four, it was a big call going with Matthews over Cha and bringing in Rogne,” the hoops boss explained.
“We needed someone dominant at the back, I thought that their two centre-forwards got the better of us at Ibrox.
“Rogne has a good temprement, he’s composed. In all the hurly burly tonight I could see his head coming up and heading the ball out. That’s what you need to do against Rangers.
“They whip the ball in well from the wide areas, I thought Rogne and Mulgrew dovetailed superbly. Jelavic and Lafferty are a handful for any team.”
Lennon added: “It wasn’t a brilliant performance but it was a good controlled team performance. We sacrificed a little bit by leaving Ki out, these games are physical but with Wanyama, Brown and Kayal in there we needed a platform in the game.
“We always felt that we’d be dangerous with Forrest, Hooper and Samaras and I’m delighted with the way that it all worked out.”
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Great result. I thought the defence started shaky but all played great games. Rogne was great; big call getting the start over Wilson. Would love to see him stay fit and get a run in the team.
Adam Matthews is turning into a real find. Growing in confidence with every game and has a great throw on him.
Well done Bhoys!!
Open for debate no chance Willie Collum blew it big time, well thats the mank mobs 1st defeat in 17 games his records gone,
Why did he not red card 3 rankers
sorry Joe am PARANIOD enough
ref had fair game but tackle on forrest should be red sfa may look at it the other 2 some would red card 2pts clear for new year who would have thought lol
Yes Rogne was superb and deserves all the praise coming his way.
Lenny, however, has a tendency to forget good performances like this….so don’t be surprised if he drops back down the pecking order in the near future.
Just as a matter of interest..what’s your best back four…??..mine is….
Mathews/ Big Dan/ Mulgrew/ Izzy…
That leaves… Lustig/ Cha/ K.Wilson/ Rogne/ El Khadouri/ Ledley (?)..on the bench.
Mick if you thought that Ref hadfair game or atre you jesting, he was shocking how many times did boggy get off with consistant fouling, barkley, lafferty may I say is a disgrace to put on any football strip, then you state SFA to look at 2 red cards he missed he fecking bottled out or just honest mistakes,
I thought the ref had a decent enough game, assistant had a bad call when Hooper was clean through but balanced against Wallace header early on when he could have given a goal…although clearly unsighted. Healy easily could have seen a red card, but overall ref kept control.
Still don’t see what Brown offered to the side, though I’m sure we have others who would contribute much more. While Hooper was starved of quality service.
Delighted with the points, but know we have much more to give yet.
Izzy & Wilson will give us more pace at the back and allow others to push on more. Plenty to be pleased about though.
What price Thomas Rogne?
Big Ray Winstone on Bet 365 says…….”Jelavic to escape from Rogne’s back pocket before hogmanay. 10000 – 1 !!!!!
Rogne had a very good game but I’m still not convinced by him, he had two solid midfielders in Wanyama and Kayal in front of him and Jellyfish and Laffatme were poor. Saying that though Rogne was solid and composed and importantly he didn’t give away stupid free kicks that Big Dan is prone to do. Rogne has looked shaky in the past and still needs to prove he can cope under pressure. Collum was ok, but then he didn’t get a chance to make a huge honest mistake, poor call leaving Healy get away with his cowardly tackle on the smallest, youngest, quietest player on the pitch.
you lot can argue between the ref being good/decent/terrible, but the trueth is (in my opinion of course) besides the healy insident he had a gr8 game cause because he didnt give the scum the goal haha. and about rogne, well any body that plays against rangers in the spl and beats them had to have been on good game hail hail
I guess he played ok if the result is anything to go by, but for me the team was actually crying out for Wanyama to be put back in defense in the place of Rogne and Ki in for Wanyama.
I’m sorry bhoys but Rogne doesn’t do it for me and this might be a bit harsh but he reminds me of a young ….wait for it………..Loovens (sorry Thomas) and that plank Glen would never wear our beloved hoops again If I had my way.
Otherwise wed night performance was solid enough but lets face it Rankgerms are brutal and we made it difficult at times by playin to their strengths i.e. long ball or slack passing.
My preferred defense is actually Matthews Wanyama Mulgrew and Izzy but somehow we’ll need to find a place for our Ledley who is Celtic to the core!!
I dont like being over confident but lets face it, we(Celtic) should not even maybe look back after this and for the good of our game(SPL) Rankgerms deserve SFA this season as they are total mince imho.
HH 1NL YNWA TAL 😀
Rogne was excellent and so was Matthews. I agree that Healy’s tackle was s straight red and a very poor cop-out by Collum. The SPL can’t do anything about it though since the ref took action. Collum did make big errors.
The offside on Hooper was a whopper. McGregor was like a deer in the headlights all night and would have no chance of stopping Gary. McCulloch’s tackle on Kayal was also a red, and Laffatme got away with after the ball kicks all night too, but leave him on and that hurts rangers more.
But, I just can’t get enough!
Good point about Mcgreggor, I seen a few close ups during the game he looked a bit nervous, was strange to see him fazed like that, dropped a couple of shoots too. He is normally a guarantee to have a decent game against us, no chance with the goal but he definitely looked out of sorts.
If Collum refused to send off Healy for a bad tackle because he is biased then what about the ref in the Hibs v Inverness game O’Hanlon committed a far worse over the top tackle and got away with it…maybe he was biased too ?
Nothing in the rules about extra protection for players being Young, Quiet etc….Poor tackle Dumbo got booked for it – Could easily have seen red but ref chose not too. Anyway I’d rather beat them with 11 men on the park than give them more excuses.
Conditions were terrible and I thought we were composed in defence apart from 2 minor mistakes
1) Ledley giving the ball away which left Matthews with 2 players…Brown wandered inside
2) Corner, Brown fresh air swipe and Boucaclown hit it over with his knee
Seems anyone playing alongside Wanyama has a good game Midfield or Defence so the young guy should get most credit. Although I see him more as Kayal’s replacement.
Willie, wake up. We were talking about Collum. Are you hurting or something? Shame really, because, we, “just can’t get enough”