BRENDAN Rodgers has welcomed the reemergence of Aberdeen as a major force in Scottish football and predicted their revival will help his Celtic side to maintain their performance levels and improve even further in future.
The Pittodrie club, who stretched their unbeaten run to 16 games when they beat Rangers 2-1 at home on Wednesday night, are level on points with their Parkhead rivals in the Premiership heading into the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden tomorrow evening.
Rodgers, who will have his captain Callum McGregor, winger Nicolas Kuhn and striker Adam Idah available for selection after the trio recovered from minor injuries, feels their form is a huge positive for the game in this country and will prove beneficial to his side going forward.
“I think it is brilliant,” he said. “I think it’s great. Whether it is football, or whether it is business, any competition is healthy and it’s what makes you better.
“You will always drive your own standards and your own standard of performance, absolutely. But competition is really, really healthy and can keep moving you forward.
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“Aberdeen are up there fighting as well. Everyone will expect Rangers to be there at some point, there will be other teams, big clubs from Edinburgh will feel they want to be up there challenging as well. So I think the more competitive, that can improve you.
“I am not surprised by their form this season and it’s a great credit to them. They have played with great consistency in their first 10 league games and have really good players. Jimmy [Thelin] has done a fantastic job and he has good coaching staff behind the scenes too.
“I always expect Aberdeen to be up there after my first time here. In Derek McInnes’s time, he had a great period and to see them up there is not a surprise. They are playing and performing very well.”
“Is the 2-2 draw a warning? Yeah. It was a game we should have won. We were 2-0 up and had chances. We then got punished for our slackness in the first 15 minutes of the second half. That showed us that if you are slack and not concentrated and committed in your defending, they have players who can hurt you.
“You saw that with the two goals they scored and that has to be a learning for us. And it will be. We spoke about that afterwards and we will do it again before the game. Even in the last 20 minutes the last time, we did have chances to win it. But we also know that we need to play very well to reach the final.”
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Rodgers, who admitted he has a big call to make about who to play alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers at centre-half with Auston Trusty and Liam Scales both pushing for a start, confessed he would like Celtic to reclaim the first trophy he lifted as their manager back in 2016 and make amends for their early exit in the competition last season.
“It certainly gives us hunger because we missed out on it,” he said. “But we are in a far different place to last year. Our hunger is there to reach the first final of the season. We were really disappointed last year when we weren’t up to challenge for it. But we are for this one and we have a great opportunity tomorrow to get there.
“It’s been a great joy to go there [Hampden], but I’ve always treated it like it’s my first time. That’s always been my mindset. It’s great going there and seeing half the stadium full of Celtic supporters and with either the opportunity to win a final or get to a final. It will be no different tomorrow.
“Leading into this one, both teams have had a midweek game. Our concentration was on Dundee and then we flipped quickly onto this one. It’s been very focused. Every game is a big game for us so the mantra this week isn’t so different.”
