Celtic were demolished in the Champions League this week.
ESPN pundits Craig Burley and Paul Mariner have criticised Brendan Rodgers and Celtic following their 7-1 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Celtic were given yet another masterclass by the big-spending French giants who thumped Rodgers’s side 5-0 in the previous fixture at Parkhead this season.
Bizarrely, the Hoops opened the scoring at Parc des Princes inside the first minute this week and the Northern Irish manager defended his side after the game, claiming there were “a lot of good moments” that he witnessed from the Scottish champions.
Those comments did not go down well with former Bhoys hitman Burley – who spent two years in Glasgow – and ex-Arsenal man Mariner, who tore into Rodgers on ESPN.
Burley said: “Celtic fans can accept that they’re not in the ball game with PSG or Barcelona, but they worship the ground that this man walks on at the moment, but cut the nonsense. They were an embarrassment. He [Rodgers] needs to make sure he sets up Celtic to be difficult to beat.”
Mariner added: “Surely when his players are reading these quotes after the game, surely they’re thinking ‘What’s the gaffer on about?’ I mean that is absolutely ridiculous [what he said].”
As a manager, sometimes Rodgers has to defend his side and protect them from criticism for the sake of maintaining a positive morale within the camp.
He might not genuinely believe that Celtic had any “good moments” but coming out and publicly criticising his players’ performances isn’t the wise move.
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