“Reality of it”: Celtics manager Brendan Rodgers lays out aims and discusses the forgotten trio’s current status of play.
Between now and January, Celtics manager Brendan Rodgers has given Mikey Johnston a challenge to demonstrate his ability to contribute to the first team.
“For me the biggest thing with Mikey was just about being fit,” stated Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who gave the winger his Celtic debut in May 2017. There may have been a rush at the end of the window to consider going out on loan, but he was recovering from a really bad back issue from which he had not trained.
“So for me between the end of the window and January he had to prove that he could stay fit and stay robust and build up his football fitness, and then we will see if we can get him some game time because he is a talented player. So thankfully he has been able to do that, he has gone away with the international team and got some minutes, which is great, and we will see between now and January if he gets that game time. But he gets the chance to prove it every day in training, he looks strong, and I am hopeful he might get some game time.”
Another winger who is yet to feature this season is summer signing Marco Tilio. The 22-year-old Australia international has recovered from the injury he arrived with in Glasgow when he signed from Melbourne City.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s cinch Premiership match against Hearts at Tynecastle, Rodgers said: “It’s just time. He will admit it himself, it’s been a really, really hard transition for him. The intensity of the game is totally different to what he is used to, so it’s been a challenge for him in training.
“It’s always difficult, you are a new player coming into a club and you end up being injured virtually all of pre-season and into September. He has started to find his feet in the last three or four weeks. It’s going to take him more time but I am not in any big rush for Marco. He will bring himself to the team as quickly as he can produce in training and over his time here. He is adapting but it’s taking a wee bit longer for him just purely because the intensity of the game is totally different to where he has come from.”
Yuki Kobayashi, a defender from Japan, is another player who is unlikely to start “I only have eleven players,” Rodgers declared. “The squad is simply too large. That much is true. I therefore cannot fit every player, not even into a squad on a matchday. However, he is unquestionably a very professional person. To be fair to Yuki, he would have taken a loan out before the window closed and only sustained an injury prior to leaving.
“But he is training really well, it’s not like he is doing anything wrong. His attitude is fantastic, he is working hard, but we only have a limited number of centre-halves that we can play.”
Leave a Reply