Brendan Rodgers Calls Out Celtic Players For Being 'Too Negative'

It might be a bit too early to panic but the signs are not promising for Celtic at the moment. Their recent result was a 2-1 defeat against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

This is not the first time that they have lost to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park either. It was there that they were knocked out of the Scottish League Cup in the second round.

Unfortunately, it does not feel like they learned much from that earlier result. To be fair to the players, Celtic were decent in the first half. But the wheels came off after the break, in one of the most disappointing halves of football in a long time.

There was a lot that went wrong against Kilmarnock in the second half. At times, it looked like a team that did not know what to do and had accepted their fate.

Kilmarnock came from a goal down to seal a 2-1 win. The result means that Celtic have been dragged back into a title race that many had considered over in September.

Brendan Rodgers was clearly not impressed with his team's performance against Kilmarnock. And he was especially critical of their passing. According to the Irish Examiner, the Celtic manager said:

"The players know themselves. We spoke after the game about how this isn't how we want to do.

"In the second half we played their game instead of playing our game. I thought we got rid of the ball in the second half instead of passing it. And there is a big difference.

"We ended up being too negative in our passing. If you play a team that's pressing and right up against you there, you've got to pass the ball forward. Because that forward pass eliminates pressure. And we weren't able, for some reason, to do that."

There had been signs that Celtic were on the up after the performance against Hibernian. That all went out of the window at Rugby Park.

Now, they have to start from square one once again. Unfortunately, that has been the case far too often. For every step forward, they seem to take another back almost immediately and are stuck in the same place as a result.

It is easy to raise questions about Rodgers, and his decisions will certainly come under the microscope at some point. But it is also important to recognise that the Northern Irishman has not been given much to work with.

Jota and Carl Starfelt, two regular starters through Ange Postecoglou's reign as Celtic manager, left in the summer and were replaced by project signings. It has not worked out and most fans did not expect it to either. So, there is no reason to be shocked at the results or the performances.

The important thing is to learn from the mistakes that were made in the summer and sign players in January who are ready to establish themselves as regular starters from the get-go. Otherwise, Celtic might find themselves behind Rangers in the league table soon.