Brendan Rodgers has a few questions to answer after Celtic were humbled once again in the Champions League.
It’s not often Brendan Rodgers has found himself on the wrong end of criticism since being appointed as Celtic manager in 2016.
The Northern Irishman has swept all before him at domestic level, guiding Celtic to a first league and cup treble since 2001 last season while failing to lose a single game on Scottish soil. In the Champions League, however, the story is slightly different.
Celtic suffered their heaviest ever European defeat in the humiliating 7-0 battering by Barcelona as they finished bottom of the group stage last season. And, when PSG came to town in September and put five into the hosts’ net, Rodgers’ side had endured their worst home loss since 1895.
And the Hoops were humbled once again by a European giant on Wednesday night, going down 3-0 to Bayern Munich.
Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich and Mats Hummels delivered the knockout blow at the Allianz Arena as Celtic failed to lay a glove on their illustrious hosts. And former Republic of Ireland captain Kenny Cunningham has now taken it upon himself to call Rodgers’ tactics into question.
“Such naive play. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” the former Sunderland and Birmingham defender said in quotes reported by the Scottish Sun.
“The simple fact is that this Celtic team, from a defensive point of view, is not good enough.”
Celtic have now conceded eight goals in three group games this season, plus another four in a play-off loss to Astana.
Thanks to a valuable 3-0 win in Anderlecht, however, Celtic still have a real chance of making it into the Europa League. But while Rodgers’ free-flowing philosophy is all well and good in Scotland, he must make changes with Celtic being found out again in Europe.
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