Everything said at Brendan Rodgers Media Conference in Belgrade

Brendan Rodgers and Benjamin Nygren together spoke to the media in Belgrade ahead of the Europa League opener between Red Star Belgrade and Celtic. Here’s everything that the Celtic manager was asked and his responses…

Everything that Brendan Rodgers said in his pre-match press conference as Celtic get set to face Crvena zvezda on Europa League duty in Belgrade

Q: You’ve spoken a lot about your disappointment, obviously, not making it through to the Champions League. Can you just talk us through a little bit more about your hopes for this competition?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think both clubs actually missed out on the final qualification games and wanted to be in that. But after the initial disappointment, we’re really looking forward to this competition. It’s one of the eight games we have. There are some great teams, historical teams, and it’s a big challenge for us to be in it. So we’re over that disappointment, and we’re now really focused on doing well in this competition.”

Q: You were keen to focus on the football. You’ve mentioned that in the past. I wonder if this competition and a game like this have the potential to do that for the support as well, and for the focus to be on the football and not the other stuff?

Brendan Rodgers: “The supporters will have their focus on the football. That’s one of the great things about the support. They do really get behind the team and support the team. There are obviously other factors going on at the moment, and I really hope that at some point in the future we all come together. But as I’ve said many times, my job is to really concentrate on the players and the team and us performing well, and we’ll get the support.”

Q: You are going into a new competition with new players as well. What’s your general assessment of how healthy the squad is going into this?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think I mentioned before that we’re building. Like I say, guys are changing. New guys are coming in and understanding how we work and how we play. The team planning and the new connections again. It may feel easy and seem easy, but it’s not. Guys, do come in more often. Obviously, some of the guys come in later as well. I’m really seeing the connections and the team improving. The spirit of the team is very strong. We’ve got a bunch of really good guys who want to do well in their careers at Celtic. We have to continue to work that way in order to perform well.”

Q: Is there confidence, Brendan, of not just putting the mark on this competition, but going into the real deep stages of this competition with the strength in depth you now have?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think that’s the plan for the team. But certainly for us, we want to have a really good go at this competition. In the Champions League last season, we were competitive, which we wanted to be. I’d like to see this tournament here. We feel that we can, with the improvements that we will make as the season goes on. But obviously, starting tomorrow night, we really want to push to do well. We feel we can do it.

Continues on the next page…