heRangers manager Philippe Clement with his team at the final whistle of the Scottish Premiership match between Dundee and theRangers at the Scot Foam Stadium, at Dens Park, on 9th January 2025. (Picture by Mark Runnacles)
Q: What have you made at Dundee this season, a good result last midweek?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, very good. It’s always good to be a difficult game when you go there. Probably not too dissimilar to our game at the weekend, where I think Tony’s (Docherty) team will be tight and compact and low on the pitch, and then you have to get to work to break them down. If you can do it early, great. If not, then you have to keep the patience, and it may come like it did at the weekend, later on. So, yeah, I think Tony’s done an outstanding job since he’s been in there and brought in some really good players. They all work, and you can see they all play for him, and he is only a few points off that top six, the last time out against (the)Rangers, they produced a good result. So, we know that like all the games we will have to fight for the result.”
Q: It’s the transfer window and managers want to do the business, are you confident you’ll be able to do what you want to do coming to the end of it?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, yeah, we’ll certainly try our very best. We want to improve the squad. There’s a lot of work going on to do that.”
Q: How many do you think you will need to bring in?
Brendan Rodgers: “I don’t have a number. I’d love to give you a number, but I don’t have any number because, you know, we may want to, but it might not be possible. So, we certainly want to add to the squad and give it a freshness, and hopefully help us come forward.”
Luis Palma at Tannadice, Dundee Utd v Celtic, Sunday 22 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Q: Luis Palma’s been linked again with a possible move away this January. Is he someone you maybe need to look at with his future, just given the fact that he’s not had as much game time as he would have wanted this season?
Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, yeah, he’s a player that I spoke to just the other day, and he’s a great guy. Everyone loves him here. We love him. He’s a brilliant lad, works hard every day, trains every day, and probably not getting the game time that he would like. We have to weigh everything up. Our first job is to look after our own squad, make sure that’s ready, and by the end of this month set up for the challenges for the rest of the season. If that allows some players to go out, then that can and may still happen. At this moment in time, he is here and a part of the squad.”
Q: Is he back home for a few days? Is he back here now?
Brendan Rodgers: “No, he’s back, yeah, he’s here now. So, yeah, it was just something that happened overnight, and I could see, I sensed with him the feeling, and then to sit in a coach three and a half hours, going up north probably wasn’t going to be the best thing for him. So, I just gave him the weekend, to be with his family, and then reset again after the weekend. So, he’s come back in, and it’s been a hard time for him, losing both grandparents, who were so close. He’s ready to go again, and he’ll be part of the squad tomorrow.”
