'Spoilt' Celtic fans deserved Brendan Rodgers criticism, claim former Scotland pair

The Celtic boss was critical of the club’s fans during the 3-0 win over St Mirren at the weekend.

Celtic head coach Brendan Rodgers was right to criticise the club’s supporters in the aftermath of their 3-0 win over St Mirren, according to two former Scotland internationals.

The Hoops boss was clearly frustrated following the weekend Premiership win over the Paisley outfit and did not hold back in his criticism of supporters who showed signs of frustration early in the game when his players passed the ball backwards. Rodgers also called fans “disrespectful” for chanting Kieran Tierney’s name following recent links to the former Celtic favourite.

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“When it was 0-0 for the first 20 minutes, we’d make a backward pass and the crowd would be on to the team,” blasted Rodgers on Sunday. “That cannot happen. One, if you know about football, and two, if you can understand that when teams come here, they’re going to make it really difficult.”

Speaking to The Warmup, former Scotland internationals Kris Boyd and James McFadden believe Rodgers had a point, with ex-Rangers striker Boyd saying: “I know Brendan had a little bit of a go at the fans, and probably rightly so, because it does frustrate you as a player when you’re out there and you’re being told - it was Greg Taylor - to go back, start again, change the point of attack and move it in a different direction to maybe open up a door for the team to go through. Fans are not happy about it. Celtic fans been spoilt with the last few years with the football they play. But going back and starting again - there’s nothing wrong with that.

Celtic have a 13-point lead at the top of the Premiership after their 3-0 win over St Mirren.Celtic have a 13-point lead at the top of the Premiership after their 3-0 win over St Mirren.
Celtic have a 13-point lead at the top of the Premiership after their 3-0 win over St Mirren. | SNS Group

“When you look at the context of this week there's no doubt that Thursday was a hammer blow for Celtic [losing to Rangers] because every single person you spoke to were saying they were going absolutely annihilate Rangers,” said Boyd.

“They would have came here to Celtic Park yesterday still angry with that result. Although, they’ve had a fantastic season already, got a cup in the bag, looks as if they're going to get through to at least the playoffs in the Champions League. The league is more or less done as well. But the result on Thursday would have frustrated a lot of them, and they would have been angry going to that ground. But you’ve just got to be patient.

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“Brendan Rodgers is right, the last thing you need is the fans turning on them so early in the game, because it is impossible, no matter how good a team you are, to go out and score early goals in every single game. Some teams do that even when they do score early. Leaving Celtic Park with a one or two nil defeat would be a victory for some teams.”

McFadden echoed Boyd’s thoughts, saying: “It's hard, because you're playing against teams that are organised against you, they're trying to close as many gaps as they can and, at times, if you move it fast enough, then the gaps open up, and maybe somebody switches off or breaks ranks. Then that's when the tempo changes. And it's tough because they've got a set way of playing that they want to have the ball, and if it's not a good opportunity to go forward, then it goes the other side.

“What you try to do is move the team to create gaps to then use the biggest assets and the speed on the counter-attack with that. So it can be frustrating at times, because you want to see action, but you don't as much control, which is what Brendan Rodgers wants for his team.”

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