‘Excuses’ ‘disjointed’ ‘going through the motions’ Sutton’s blistering attack on Rodgers II

Chris Sutton has delivered a scathing attack on Brendan Rodgers after six months in charge of Celtic.

Back in the summer the Sky Sports pundit was delighted to see the Irishman back in charge, apparently picking up on where he left off with a Treble winning squad looking to make an impact on Europe.

This year there won’t be a treble for Celtic, European football was dead and buried after picking up one point from five matches with major doubts over Rodgers, is squad and a dubious signing policy.

Celtic lost three important members of last season’s squad, signed up seven new faces during the summer then drafted in two more as loans in the final week of the window.

Following back to back defeats in the SPFL tomorrow’s match at home to Livingston will be a test of character with the real prospect that Celtic won’t start 2024 at the top of the table.

Sutton can be relied on for calling things out as he sees it, picking up on his appearance on the It Is All Kicking Off podcast:

At the moment this Celtic team are disjointed and going through the motions. And there’s a fair argument to suggest Brendan Rodgers has been going through the motions this season. I also think the words which he used after the Hearts game in his interview about players lacking passion and desire – is that not his responsibility as manager to put out a motivated team? I think it is and he has to take a far greater share of the blame and far greater responsibility than he has done.

There’s a lot of mud flying around at the board and a certain section of the support haven’t been allowed into the stadium. People can use those as excuses but the fact of the matter is that the team hasn’t performed on the pitch this season as well as they should have done. He’s taken over a different situation because Ange Postecoglou’s team were fast and furious and this season under Brendan Rodgers it has been flat.

Celtic weren’t prepared for the Champions League and should have been. Rangers have won the first trophy of the season. Brendan can live on his past record at Celtic but only for so long. There’s a bulk of the support who haven’t been fooled by the nature of the performances this season but there’s a chance they can put things right.

But the excuses about not having enough quality players – there’s only a couple players different from Ange Postecolgou’s team. He’s brought in eight new signings and only one played against Hearts, Luis Palma, so Brendan can’t use that as an excuse. He should be getting more out of this team at this moment in time. That is the bottom line.

On Tuesday Sutton will be part of the Sky Sports team at Dens Park for the visit of the hoops, the second last game of the year.