Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, paid tribute to the relentlessness of his players after they extended their unbeaten record to 21 matches with a win over Partick Thistle last night.
They needed an early goal by Scott Sinclair to secure a nervy 1-0 victory which moved them 14 points clear of second-placed Rangers, with a game in hand. Despite having made eight changes to the side that beat Dundee on Saturday, Celtic recorded a 12th straight league win and are still without a domestic loss all season. In the Premiership, they have won 49 of a possible 51 points.
“It’s not easy but I think you have to credit the players in terms of how they go from game to game to game,” Rodgers said. “I think that was the 41st game [including friendlies] we’ve had, which is a phenomenal amount. To not slip up domestically really shows a real persistence in the team and energy to keep going.
We play in a way that has a systematic approach. If one players comes in, he understands his function in the team. There’s no way I can play all the players in every game. They have international games on top of that so you just can’t do it.
“At times you’re going to lose a wee bit of fluency but you see other characteristics. There’s spells of great football, great possession, creating chances. We should have scored more goals to make it calmer but still having that mentality to win is very, very important.”
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Having given a debut to 18-year-old Calvin Miller, Rodgers compared him to Ryan Bertrand, the England international with whom he worked at Chelsea. Miller, like Bertrand, used to be a winger, but the Celtic manager has converted him to left back, with promising results.
“I did a similar thing with Ryan. In the same team was Scott Sinclair, who was a striker. I moved Scotty wide and moved Ryan to left back and he went on to play with England and won the Champions League with Chelsea and is now at Southampton. I see similar traits in Calvin.”