What Brendan Rodgers Said at Half-time to Spark His Players Into Life at Tynecastle

It was sluggish, somewhat turgid, and definitely difficult to watch, but after Celtic wiped away their international break rust, they soon got into their groove in the second half at Tynecastle on Saturday night.

Kyogo Furuhashi, who loves a goal against the Jambos, opened the scoring 55 minutes in before Nicolas Kuhn finished on the breakaway to double the visitors’ advantage moments later. Proliifc substitute Adam Idah added some gloss to the scoreline with a brace from the bench.

The Hoops now sit pretty at the top of the Scottish Premiership, leading Aberdeen by three points and Rangers by a hefty 11 after both sides froze amid kick-off delays on Saturday afternoon.

Things weren’t looking entirely optimistic for Celtic themselves at half time in Gorgie, though. They were ponderous in the opening 45 and struggled to spring an ageing Craig Gordon into life. That changed in the second half as the Scottish Premiership champions came out firing and romped to a 4-1 victory.

Starman Kuhn, who is now only five goal contributions off equalling Jota’s best season in green and white, was asked post-match what manager Brendan Rodgers said to the players at the break to spark the resurgence: “That we have to show mentality,” said the German (Sky Sports).

“That we have to press more, we have to let the ball run better. That’s what we did in the second half and [we] used our chances.”

Celtic will look to continue from where they left off on Saturday when Club Brugge comes to town in the UEFA Champions League midweek.

Kick-off on Wednesday is at 8pm, with the action live on TNT Sports.