Rodgers knows spotlight is on him after shock Dundee defeat

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers at full-time after 

his side’s 2-0 defeat to Dundee at Dens Park

"I’ll always look at myself first and 

analyse myself and where I can be better"

   - Brendan Rodgers

20 Oct 2025 - The Scotsman

Matthew Elder - matthew.elder@scotsman.com

Brendan Rodgers has accepted that the spotlight will fall on him after Celtic lost at Dens Park for the first time in 37 years to fall five points behind Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Yesterday’s match was delayed by several minutes as Celtic fans continued their ongoing protest against the board by throwing dozens of balls onto the pitch straight after kick-off, but the boos were directed towards Rodgers and his players at fulltime after a Clark Robertson header and a Cameron Carter-vickers own goal handed Dundee a 2-0 win and first home victory over the Hoops since September 1988.

Celtic now face two crucial upcoming fixtures with Sturm Graz next up in the Europa League at Parkhead on Thursday before a trip to Tynecastle on Sunday where a Hearts victory would put them eight points clear at the summit amid the prospect of becoming the first side outwith the Old Firm since Aberdeen in 1985 to win the title.

“Well, as you can imagine, bitterly disappointed with that,” Rodgers said. “We lose the goal and sometimes that can happen from a set-piece where you get blocked off, but we still get a lot of time left in the game and just didn’t really have the craft and the quality in the final third to break that team down.

“When you’re at a club like Celtic, [the spotlight] is always on you. It was on me when I first came back. We got through that. It’ll be on us now when we’re not at our best level and we’ll get through this as well. But ultimately, we need to be better. We’re not playing with the speed and influence that this team has done before. I have to find a way to get us back to that level.

“You’re trying to look at the different ways to set the team up and we change the structure at half-time and trying to find different solutions that way.

“I’ll always look at myself first and analyse myself and where I can be better. Like I said, it’s my responsibility to try and find a way to get what I can out of the players that we have in this moment. That’s always the first port of call.”

Asked what his full-time message to his players was, Rodgers replied: “I just said [to the players] that this is where you really have to be a man, because playing for Celtic is great from the outside when you look in and you’re winning trophies and playing great football – but you’ve got to deal with pressure.

“Also, the result and performance today wasn’t good enough. It’s not acceptable for Celtic. I’ve come here a number of times, a number of years, and that today is not the level, so we have to find it.”

With Celtic scoring less and conceding more than they have been accustomed to under his watch, Rodgers admitted that he is as concerned as he has ever been over his two tenures as Celtic manager.

“Yes, there’s absolutely no doubt,” he added. “It’s been a struggle from the beginning of the season. However, we have to stay together and we have to find a way to get the results and get the confidence in the team.

“When we say the speed in the team, we’ve lost a lot of speed and a lot of goals out of the team, but it doesn’t matter now. I need to find a solution.

“It’s not even my thinking about Hearts. We’ve got to recover from today, we’ve got to analyse and see where we can be better and then we’ve got a massive game on Thursday.

“Clearly, we’re not at the levels that we’ve been in the past, but it’s such a long season. It’s such a long season, still very early. We haven’t performed today and we have to be honest about that. It’s nowhere near the level of what we’d expect.”

Rodgers refused to apportion any blame on his team’s performance to the ongoing off-field conflict between the supporters and the board after his Celtic players spent several minutes clearing balls from the pitch, with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel seen pleading for supporters to stop.

“It was right at the beginning of the game and we’ ve still got a long, long way togo after that ,” Rodgers said. “It doesn’t stop you giving the ball away and losing a goal on a counterattack. It doesn’t stop you getting blocked off on the pitch.

“We can’t use that as an excuse. We really can’t. Of course, it’ s been simmering all summer and into the beginning of the season. However, we can only focus on the pitch and we can be better on the pitch, for sure.

“Listen, I’m not going to tell the supporters what to do. They’re frustrated, of course. They are the heart of this club. As I said, we had still a long, long period of time to put a performance in. and we didn’ t do that. The fans are the heart of this club. the passion is here. It’s their life. It’s their love. And they want to see the team doing well. We had enough time in the game and enough ball in the game to do better for them. And we didn’t do that. So it’s on us.”

Rodgers also used a car analogy to hint that the lack of quality summer signing s–one of the main reasons behind the Celtic fans’ protests – has hindered him his season.

“Listen, it’s not all linear and all smooth right the way through the season,” he said. “I think the challenge from the summer, now leading into here, where we lost a lot of firepower, a lot of goals out on the team.

“And there’s no way you’ll go into a race and be given the keys to a Honda Civic and say, I want you to drive it like a Ferrari. It’s not going to happen. So until something changes, I have to find the solutions. Because like I said, goals, speed, everything has come out of the team. And we need to find a way to be better.”