Celtic's Brendan Rodgers and Callum McGregor on Atalanta
21/10/2024
uefa24
Stadio di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
21/10/2024
uefa24
Stadio di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hi, good evening. Sorry, we're slightly late. Just in terms of the format of the conference,
00:15Celtic manager Brendan Rogers will be first, followed by our captain, Callum McGregor.
00:20It's quite busy, so if we just kick off quickly with questions, that would be great. BBC first,
00:27thank you. Hi Brendan, another huge test for you in the Champions League, how are the boys
00:33feeling ahead of it? Yeah, we're looking forward to the experience again. I think we've played
00:42obviously two games now, the first one you come off and you feel absolutely amazing and
00:47it's a great feeling. Then you come off after the second game and it feels like an assault
00:52on your spirit, but that is life at this level. So yeah, we're really looking forward to the
01:00challenge, playing against a really good team. Can you bring us up to speed on your team news,
01:04specifically Cameron Carter-Vickers, is he fit, has he travelled? No, he hasn't travelled. Anyone
01:10else fit and available? Greg Taylor hasn't travelled as well, so Greg should join the
01:15training group on Friday. Cam, we'll see when we get back. Just lastly from me, what lessons did
01:24you learn from the Dortmund experience? It was obviously a very painful one for you and your
01:29players, but what can you do differently against a team that's maybe every bit as dangerous tomorrow?
01:35Yeah, it's a very good side, very aggressive team, very attacking. For us I think it's that
01:44compactness in the team which is very important. We weren't tight enough in certain moments in that
01:52game and of course then they add to that the quality that they finish with. But I think for us
02:01we deserve to be here in this competition and that's always important to install that belief
02:06in the players. You know you're going to have to defend well and be strong in your duels against
02:11a team that, like I say, in terms of a defensive organisation and how they work,
02:19pretty unique in terms of that way and are at the very highest level of that. So you've got to be
02:25able to deal with that, play through that pressure, but also be really strong defensively.
02:32It's the aim we go into with every game, but going into the games at this level is even more important.
02:38How do you strike that balance between learning the lessons from Dortmund but not
02:43compromising your style and your ethos in the way that maybe some people would say
02:47they would want to see Celtic do in a game like this?
02:49Yeah, absolutely. Listen, I started coaching many, many years ago, over 25 years ago,
02:57and from the very beginning my coaching has always been aggressive.
03:01And until the day I finish it will be aggressive and that's how I work.
03:07But I'm also respectful that you play against teams at a certain level and certain opponents
03:13where you have to really look at their strengths. But I don't say I don't do that in every game,
03:21because I do. No matter what team we're playing, whether it's in Scotland or in the Champions
03:26League, it's the level at which you can get punished. So I think it's one where you have
03:33to have the balance in your game, you have to be really strong defensively. There's going to
03:40be moments when you can press the game high, there's going to be moments when you're lower
03:44on the pitch. And I think the key learning for us has to be that when you are in those moments,
03:50you cannot go on your own. The occasion and the emotion, because we get very, very inexperienced
03:57squad of players playing at this level, so sometimes you can make little decisions to
04:02jump out of your slot when you're defending, when really you should stay, because at this
04:07level you'll get picked off. So that's the key for us. But we always have to carry that threat,
04:14we have to attack with that intention to play through that pressure and know that when you
04:18can do that against Atalanta, then there's space for you. But it's always about striking the balance.
04:23For the people that would say that they feel you need to be more pragmatic, or whatever the
04:29word would be, would that not be being true to how you view football and how you want your teams
04:34to play football? I think if you look at this club here in Atalanta, it's a great example.
04:42Obviously, totally different resources and a way above us in terms of that. But if you look at the
04:47actual principle of it, they came through and arrived into this level and I'm sure the manager
04:57will tell you some really harsh learning experiences in terms of the games that they
05:01played, especially against the top Premier League teams, where it was a real challenge and the
05:06scoreline was difficult for them. But then they come away and they learn from that, I'm pretty
05:13sure, and stick with the philosophy, but still look at certain areas where they can be better
05:19and improve, and of course then you become better with that. So if it's a pragmatic coach,
05:30it's a different coach, I'm a different person. And that's not to say that we don't go into the
05:35game and go out and just be all out attack, all out front foot, that's not how it is.
05:42But if a coach's DNA is to sit back and be that, then that's not me.
05:52And it won't be. It won't be, it's as simple as that. My idea is to have an attacking philosophy,
06:02which is about defending, and defending well, and defending when you haven't got the ball,
06:05and being really aggressive and be really strong, and closing spaces. And then when you have the
06:10ball, look to create opportunities. But that's not to say I don't respect the different levels
06:18in the game, because I absolutely do, but I'll always be mindful of having a balance in both
06:26attack and defence. You said your team deserves to be at this level, was that a message you had to
06:34reinforce the players or convince them of after Germany, when maybe they're
06:37confidence did a bit of a whack and there was a lot of noise around that outcome as well?
06:42Yeah, I think it's when you always have to convince the players of that.
06:48As I said, we're competing at the very highest level. So yeah, that's something that when you
06:55come off, as I said, your spirit can be affected after games like that. But like I say, we have to
07:02get back on again, which we did do then at that weekend. We won the game, and like I said, you
07:08prepare for the next one. This is what can happen to you at this level. It's the very top teams,
07:13the very best teams. It's not nice, it doesn't feel good, but you have to deal with it, and that's
07:23what the players have done.
07:25Benden, you've got so much talent for revenge, but Adam Ola-Lukman, as a player you know pretty
07:30well from the past. Can you just talk us through your relationship with him in the past?
07:34Yeah, he's an absolutely brilliant young player. Adam Ola-Lukman was one that we tracked back in
07:42my first time at Celtic. I think everyone knows the story. I met him in a hotel in London and
07:49we're looking to convince him to come. Sadly, we just couldn't get to the levels that
07:53Charlton wanted for him, but the club done everything they possibly could at that time.
07:58From that moment, we stayed in contact, really. Then, when I was at Leicester, we wanted to bring
08:08in another winger and enquired about his availability when he was at Red Bull. He came in,
08:18and he was absolutely brilliant for me. In that season, he was there, scored some outstanding
08:25goals. I remember the goal he scored against Liverpool, where we won 1-0. He scored a great
08:30individual goal. He's an absolute top professional. I'm so proud of him and his career that he's had,
08:38because he's a young guy out of London and wasn't scared to travel. You'd think he was going to
08:46Germany at the time, and obviously he'd come up to the north-west of England, to Everton.
08:52But just following him through his career, and then when he came to Leicester,
08:55you could see everything he was. He leads his life in the right way. Everything is geared towards
09:02being the best he could. Watching him in that Europa League final, the goals he scored,
09:08not by accident. He practised that every day of his life where he could. He would be out with a bag
09:15of balls, doing shooting exercises long after other ones had gone in. Working on his right foot,
09:21left foot. He's so balanced. He can shoot off his right foot the same as his left foot. He's
09:27absolutely an incredible young professional. To see him score the hat-trick in the final
09:33last year was absolutely amazing. We've stayed in contact since that, back in
09:412016-17. He's such a good guy, a brilliant player. We wanted to sign him at Leicester at the time,
09:51with the chance to take him, but sadly we couldn't sign any players that summer. Lee
09:58Congreden, who I'd worked with before, once I'd told him we weren't going to be able to sign him,
10:02Lee then took him here to Atalanta. He's now a club legend.
10:07You said he was quite close with Celtic, Ben. How close did you get?
10:13Well, close in the fact that he was really excited by the project of Celtic. He was at
10:18Charlton at the time. He wanted to join a big club and feel those pressures and everything of why a
10:24player would want to come to Celtic. Charlton clearly were wanting to get as much as they
10:32possibly could for him. When we'd spoke to him, from the personal perspective, it was a move that
10:42suited him and suited his representatives. He was very clear on that. But obviously,
10:49it was the financial sum in the end. I think he went for maybe about £11 million or something,
10:55maybe he went to Everton, and it just drifted away from us. So financially, it was a challenge
11:02on the fee, but wages and everything else the club could do, and the player was keen in that moment.
11:11So that's as close as it got.
11:14Tony.
11:16Brendan, back to your own team. You work with these players every day. In matchday 2, obviously,
11:21they didn't reach the challenge, but is this a chance for them to show us that they belong at
11:25this level and they are better than that?
11:29Yeah, I think so. It's one where every game is that experience. As a football player, you don't
11:36want to be sat in the changing room feeling that again. That's something that the players know
11:43themselves. But I always say that this is a level of belief. I've said it before, these are belief
11:52games. You have to go into these and really believe that you can get the result. It might not
11:58always go your way, but you certainly have to go in with that belief. I just think in the Dortmund
12:03game, there were things that went against us very early on in the game, and then the quality and
12:08the confidence takes over, and then you end up on the back of a really heavy scoreline.
12:13Like I said, that's on me. But we hope to learn from that, and that's the key. Like I say,
12:23this is the long game here in Europe in terms of what we're trying to achieve, not just this season,
12:27but going forward. I hope in my time here, it's why one of the big reasons to come back was to
12:32show that we can make that progress. That isn't something that happens in one game and two games,
12:40but certainly the players will go into it tomorrow. We all do not want to have that feeling
12:47that we experienced after that, because it's an emotionally gutted feeling after
12:53a result like that. But this is a team whose spirit and togetherness is so strong,
12:59and for us, it's about that tactical discipline, having that togetherness and then having that
13:05belief in your quality. You have that, you'll always be in with an opportunity to get a result.
13:14Brendan, there's goals right through this Atalanta team, their top scorer is Serie A,
13:18and threats all over the park, as you know, but they've also been conceding a fair few,
13:23domestically at least. Does that give you the confidence that there will be opportunities
13:26for the guys tomorrow night? You always believe that. I think every team will have a weakness.
13:32I think that when we look at the Como game, or we look at the Arsenal game and other games,
13:41there's opportunities there, but you have to be at the very top end of your game. Like you say,
13:46this is a team full of confidence, full of quality, full of physicality,
13:50and the renown for the man-marking style in which they defend Atalanta, but that's a really
13:58attacking philosophy. It's one that creates opportunities, and that's how they work and
14:06play, and they've shown that over the last number of years. So, yes, we have to be mindful of the
14:12attacking threats, absolutely, and the power and the speed that they have, but we also have to know
14:17that if we play through that pressure, and we've played against man-marking teams before, of course,
14:23but this is the very highest level of that, but you know when you play through that structure,
14:28then there's space for you, and we have to, in those moments, utilise that space. But
14:34there's a real great challenge in front of us, but also a great opportunity to show that we
14:40can kick on from the last game. Michael? In the wake of the last one, you get a fair battering
14:48from certain quarters, even down south in England as well, and the media down there.
14:54Is the barometer for you guys set quite unjustly high? You talk about budgets and all that stuff,
14:59and if you took a team from the English Premier League at the bottom in budget terms, or top of
15:03the Championship, you'd expect them to get battered in the Champions League, wouldn't you? But you guys
15:07are held to a higher expectation. Is that unfair, do you feel? Well, I'm not going to comment on that.
15:12I think that if you've got any sort of common sense and logic, you would see that, but at Celtic,
15:18that doesn't count. You don't get the leeway. That's the reality of it. It's an opportunity
15:24for people to beat you over the head with a stick, and that's clear.
15:32So I'm not going to get too emotional, but I don't listen too much. It's absolutely a perfect storm for some people.
15:41You know that when Celtic lose, or especially when we come into Europe, that they will write a
15:47great piece on how, and actually been saving it for probably numbers of months, so that's
15:57the opportunity to do it. So I can't change that. I'm not even going to be bothered to try,
16:05to be honest. There's no leeway given, so we just have to concentrate on our own club,
16:11keep trying to improve, and see where it takes us.
16:18Good evening, Giorgio Dusi from La Gazzetta dello Sport. You already played against Atalanta
16:24five years ago with Leicester. It was a pre-season friendly, so it was also a different context, but
16:29what do you remember of Atalanta? How do you think the team, the playing style has changed over the
16:35years? Of course, many players have changed, but lots of players are still there, like Jim City,
16:39Deron and Mini Arras. Thank you. Yeah, it was 2019. I think the style is pretty much the same.
16:48Lots of players changed, but Leicester, Deron and other players are still here.
16:54I think at that time, it was probably one of the first times that we'd seen the overlap in
17:01full-back, or overlap in centre-half. We didn't see a lot of that in European football, but at
17:09that time, it was our last pre-season game, so it was a really good game. It was an intense game,
17:16but you could see the difficulties back then of the problems that Atalanta could give you if you
17:24weren't organised in your work. I think the style will have improved, of course, but it's very much
17:34a lot of the same principles. Very aggressive, very man-to-man, very attacking. It was a great
17:45challenge for us on that evening. 2-1. I will say we beat Borussia Dortmund 4-0 as well,
17:55before we played them, but that doesn't count either.
17:58Can we take one last question, please?
18:15How do you prepare for this type of game?
18:22Yes, I think it's more than the man-marking. It's that really aggressive style, how they
18:28man-mark, how they cover the game, is also the best for me in world football.
18:37We experienced that, but at a slightly lesser level, but it's still the same principle.
18:42You have to, when you play against teams that are very aggressive and pressing forward,
18:47you have to be very vertical in your football, so you have to look to play forward.
18:53You have to be good in the duels, so you have to be able to take the ball under pressure.
19:00You have to be able to connect the game quickly, one and two touch. You also have to be able to
19:04stay on the ball and eliminate the pressure on dribbles. It will be very much a different game
19:13from what you would normally watch most weeks, if you don't watch Atalanta a lot,
19:19because lots of teams will play with the zonal pressure. Atalanta really test you to the limit
19:27on that individual duel, but again, it's having that belief and having those patterns that can
19:34take you through that pressure. Of course, when you see lots of teams play against Atalanta,
19:39they will obviously go a lot more direct, because there's space to play into that.
19:46An exciting challenge, coaching challenge. As I said, one that I had before when I played
19:52against them, but of course they're a better team now and we will see how we go tomorrow night.
19:59OK, thank you very much.
20:22you
20:52you
21:23you
21:35Hi, I'd like to introduce Callum McGregor, our captain, who most of you will know. BBC again,
21:40thank you.
21:41Callum, it was a tough night at the office, the last time in the Champions League,
21:46but I know moments after it you were determined to do better next time around.
21:51The time has come. How are you feeling?
21:53Yeah, good. Like you said, obviously a difficult night the last time out, but
22:00listen, we can't lose belief that we're a good side and we know we're a good side,
22:05so we came up against a top opponent and we weren't quite right on the night.
22:09And at this level, that's what can happen. You can get punished. But like you said,
22:14we were determined to try and put it right and the time has come. So we arrived here,
22:19the boys are feeling good and now we have to go and produce a performance on the pitch to match
22:23that.
22:24Brendan made that very point that belief is going to be key. Is it going to be particularly key
22:28when you're under the cosh, which at moments there's every chance against such a good side
22:32you will be?
22:33Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the challenge for the group is to stand up
22:37in those moments and control the game without the ball as well as controlling the game with
22:42the ball. So when you get to this level, you need to be really good in both aspects of the game to
22:48get points at this level. And like I said, we do a lot of talking, but we have to do our talking on
22:55the pitch and be together and be resolute. And then when we get the ball, we know we can cause
22:59them problems as well.
23:00The team obviously faced quite a bit of criticism for their performance in Dortmund. Do you feel
23:05as a group you have something to prove coming into this game?
23:08I think you've always got something to prove, especially when you play for Celtic.
23:13Even more so when you take a sore one, then of course everyone's looking for that reaction.
23:17And personally and collectively, people are looking to see what direction you're going to go.
23:24And I think it's important tomorrow night that we show that we're together and we're a team that
23:27wants to fight and try and get as many points as we can at this level. And belief and confidence
23:33has got a massive part to play in that. So we understand that we had a poor night the last
23:37time out and it's only us that can fix it. It's only us that have that opportunity to turn that
23:43around.
23:50Cameron, you talk about learning licence. What do you learn from match day two?
23:54Well, I think if you're not right and you're playing against a top opponent with that much
23:58quality and speed, then it shows that you have to be on the level or else that's what can happen.
24:06They had different factors in the game in terms of how clinical they were, but it shows you that
24:10that type of thing can happen. So the lessons of that is we always have to be together no matter
24:16how the game pans out. You have your block and you've got to be together and defensively strong
24:23and limit the amount of space that you're giving the opponent. So we speak about trying to learn
24:28lessons, but ultimately we're the ones that have to show on the pitch and show that we're getting
24:33better with each game and with each experience. So I guess you'll only know that at the end of
24:39these games.
24:41Any more questions? Stephen? Okay. No one else? Thank you. One more? Sorry, last one. Thank you.
24:54Hi Calum, welcome in Italy. Giorgio Duzi from La Gazzetta dello Sport. I wanted to ask you
24:58something about Atalanta. How do you prepare a game like a team against Atalanta? Coach Brendan
25:04Rogers said that it's not usual to meet those teams that do a man-marking oriented pressing.
25:13How do you think about that? Thank you. Yes, I'm sure the manager's already spoken about the
25:19challenges that that type of football can give you and we do face that type of game sometimes
25:27in the domestic league. Now we obviously jump up a level in terms of physicality and quality,
25:33which has its own challenge, but when you watch the game, the space is there. You have to be
25:39really brave on the ball, you have to be really strong, very organised and control the tempo of
25:45the game with the ball and then you can decide when you speed the game up and when you try and
25:51attack and then control the game from behind as well. So you have to be very clever when you have
25:56the ball because you know once the transition comes then they have a lot of speed and power
26:02and they're trying to set up the dual aspect of that. So it's important that we bring our
26:07best quality with and without the ball and understand when to attack and when to keep
26:13the ball and make them wait.
26:31How much has Atalanta grown as a team after the Europa League win?
26:39Yes, I think they have a lot of strong players. The guys at the top end of the pitch,
26:46Lukman has a lot of quality in the dual and the 1v1 aspect of the game. So we have to try and
26:53limit that space, but they have very high quality players everywhere with good pace and power. So
27:00we have to look at the team collectively and then maybe
27:03one or two individuals at the top end we have to try and deny as much space as possible.
27:08Okay, thank you. All good? Thank you very much.