”Celtic players’ take on manager’s criticism despite their 3-1 comeback win

McGregor: Celtic ‘deserved’ Rodgers’ half-time criticism

We take you through some of the main headlines this Monday morning after a busy weekend of football action:

Despite Celtic’s 3-1 comeback triumph over St Johnstone, captain Callum McGregor acknowledges his manager’s half-time criticism will sting. Brendan Rodgers described his team’s first-half performance at McDiarmid Park as “soft” and claimed it left him angrier than he had ever been as a manager, with his side down to Diallang Jaiyesimi’s scrambling goal from a corner. “When you’re a good football team and people try to look for areas to exploit, the last thing you want to be called as a professional footballer is soft,” McGregor remarked. This is detrimental to the group. We can’t have too many instances like that because teams will try to play on it. We need to get better and stronger in those areas moments, particularly when we’re defending the box.

You never want to be labelled as soft as a professional. That will stick with the players in three, four, or five days because no one enjoys getting a painful one from the manager. We’ll have to take it on the chin because we earned it. But we don’t want to be pessimistic. We fixed it, and when you’re a team that sets high standards and falls short of them, it’s the manager’s responsibility to inform you and the players’ responsibility to solve it.”