Brendan Rodgers has put a brave face on Celtic’s 6-4 defeat from Yokohama F Marinos.
Two goalkeepers were used as the goals rained in on the hoops in their first public appearance under their new manager.
Rodgers watched Celtic in person when they won their Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden at the end of April and looked on from afar at the remaining six matches of the season that delivered the domestic treble.
After Ange Postecoglou resigned to take charge of Spurs on June 6 it quickly became obvious that the former Leicester City boss was a candidate then the favourite to take charge of Celtic.
Today after just over two weeks of training he watched the players in action in his name with some obvious issues in defence cruelly highlighted and exposed by Postecoglou’s previous club.
In public Rodgers was protective of his players but in private with his coaches and recruitment staff it is likely that he emphasised the need for the defence to be strengthened.
The Sun reports the Celtic boss saying:
It’s a period of the season where we are only a few weeks in and assessing every player and where we are at. We could have been better for the first goal before it got to Joe. It’s 25 yards out and we have a player turning inside our organisation, which shouldn’t happen.
We had a number of mistakes for the goals, losing possession and otherwise. As I said, I am assessing everything at the moment. It was a really good exercise for us. It was a real challenge from a physical perspective.
It was a real challenge from a physical perspective. We have just arrived in Japan and we played against a team who are more than halfway into their season.
A first half hat-trick from Daizen Maeda showed that Celtic’s attacking instincts are as sharp as ever but tightening up a defence overly reliant on Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston will be a priority.
On Saturday Celtic take on Gamba Osaka before returning to Scotland for a week of training at Lennoxtown before facing Wolves in Dublin on July 29.
