Celtic 4-1 Aberdeen: Rangers up next for Brendan Rodgers after passing early tests with flying colours

The Hoops boss has closed off the opening chapter of his Celtic managerial career with much to smile about; unbeaten domestically, ready to roll with the biggest European names in the most prestigious club competition of all. The reputation he rode into Celtic Park on remains unblemished.

Rodgers will get a breather of sorts this week as he takes stock during the first international week of the season, before the blizzard of weekend league and midweek Champions League outings gets underway and he finds himself spearheading a two-pronged quest.

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Rangers are up next for the Celtic manager. It promises intrigue and an opportunity for Rodgers to further cement his reputation in the eyes of a support who lauded him before a ball had been kicked this season.

His phone will not stray too far from his hand over the next few days with the Celtic manager still keen to add at least one other signing before the closure of the window on Wednesday evening, while at least one or two bodies are expected to join Stefan Johansen in sliding quietly out of the door.

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On Saturday’s evidence he will feel that his side have sufficient energy and drive about them to sustain both fights.

Aberdeen have pretentions of being Celtic’s biggest challengers for the league this season – the Parkhead side, heavy-legged at times after their midweek Israeli trek, knocked four past them.

In some ways the scoreline glossed over a performance that for significant chunks of the second period was relatively robust from Aberdeen. But as a few teams have found already this season, Celtic have genuine firepower up front as the stats show; three league games, ten goals.

The unfinished article at the back, they did not manage a clean sheet. That in itself has been one of the early headaches that has marked Rodgers’ early months in the dug-out.

In an attempt to address it, he replaced Craig Gordon with Dorus de Vries. The goalkeeper has a close working relationship with Rodgers from their time together at Swansea and it will be intriguing now to see just where the Scotland internationalist fits in.

In truth de Vries – lauded for his ease with the ball at his feet – did not overwhelm with his distribution and in actual fact had a couple of wayward passes, but Rodgers has repeatedly hinted that he will be the first choice stopper.

If he was ever going to make the change before the Champions League group games begin, then it had to be this weekend, given the magnitude of games looming.

“My goalkeepers need to be able to control the game from behind,” said Rodgers after Saturday’s game. “If you don't have control in your build-up, then it's very difficult to have control anywhere else on the field and I always think that the quicker the ball goes forward, the quicker it comes back, so the control element is important and he's tried to embrace that.”

While playing from the back is an admirable philosophy, Celtic’s real strengths still lie in their pace from middle to front.

Tom Rogic set the tone in the early exchanges during the 4-1 win on Saturday when he thundered a cracking effort off the crossbar and he is a player who is capable of adding some finesse to Celtic’s play in the middle of the park.

The Aussie lent the scoreline an exaggerated look when he sunk a sumptuous free-kick as the game drew to a close on Saturday, but it was Leigh Griffiths who could probably have claimed to have netted the best of the bunch.

The striker, with seven goals already this season, has not missed a beat since last season ended. His opener was something to savour, as he nutmegged Kenny McLean on the edge of the box before unleashing an effort off the underside of the crossbar and into the net.

James Forrest netted a second to restore Celtic’s lead after Adam Rooney has restored parity. There was some sweat on the Parkhead side’s part in the second period when they the tempo and intensity of the performance dropped, although there was something telling about their fitness levels as they finished the game with two quick-fire goals.

While Moussa Dembele looked crestfallen when Scott Sinclair nicked Celtic’s penalty off him to score the third of the day, the Hoops were relieved to have clinched the points to complete a fine week at the office.

Over the course of recent seasons there have been a number of public spats over spot-kick duties in high profile games, something that riled previous boss Ronny Deila.

Rodgers, though, could afford to be relatively sanguine about it since there was no cost from Sinclair usurping Dembele from his usual duties.
“Scotty was my penalty taker at Swansea so he knows the score and I trust that he will score a goal but I also trust Moussa – the most important thing is, it went in the back of the net,” he said.

“Moussa’s a great kid and he’s hungry to do well. He hasn’t played maybe as much as he’d want to but he’s shown a wonderful attitude and he knows that it’s a long season and his opportunities will come, and you see the impact he made when he came on, he freshened it up along with young Patrick, and he did very, very well.”