Celtic drew 0-0 with league strugglers St Johnstone, just a few days after recording the best result of their season so far against Zenit St Petersburg.
Celtic were held to a frustrating draw by St Johnstone on Sunday, in a game that finished scoreless at Celtic Park.
The game marked the first positive result for St Johnstone for some time, coming off the back of three losses in a row, while Celtic were unable to build on their best result of the season in midweek; a crucial 1-0 over Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League knock out stages.
Rodgers made seven changes to the starting XI that faced up against Zenit last Thursday, bringing in Cristian Gamboa, Calvin Miller, Jack Hendry, Charly Musonda, Tom Rogic, Scott Sinclair and Odsonne Edouard.
Despite the evident quality among this group of players, it was not enough to overturn a frustrating St Johnstone side.
Following the match, Rodgers essentially suggested that St Johnstone save their only attempts at a good performance against the league’s top sides, which was what led to such a difficult match for his own team; a strange claim to make about a team in danger of facing the drop.
Surely for any side in a relegation battle, every game is crucial as there is an opportunity to pick up points, and to suggest otherwise would be foolish according to Alan Rough.
Making so many changes and bringing in a number of youngsters should be something Celtic can handle, but warned that such a move would increase the pressure massively on the team in terms of producing a result.
“I didn’t agree with him when he said it,” Rough said regarding Rodgers’ post-match comments. “I thought he was trying to deflect from the performance of his team.
“We expected, even though they made seven changes, that they’d still win the game. It was a poor performance, throwing too many young guys in at the one time.
“If you’re going to throw seven of them in, pressure is on the come up with the goods.”
The gap between first and second has now been closed to nine points. The Hoops still have a healthy lead but more dropped points could pile pressure on the injury-laden Celtic squad.
None of the other teams have important European matches to prepare for and can essentially focus entirely on the league.
Celtic will still undoubtedly win the league; anything else would be a major shock. However, as Rough warned, the Bhoys should be wary of chopping and changing so much, which is evidently detrimental to the overall performance.
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