CRISIS? What crisis? For Brendan Rodgers, there has been something of a false narrative around Celtic this season when his team have been discussed externally, particularly in the media. If his men manage to defeat Rangers today, he could of course blow much of that away in one fell swoop.
Both on and off the field during this campaign, though, there have been undoubted moments of friction since his return to the club in the summer.
From the early League Cup exit at Rugby Park, to the long ban imposed on the Green Brigade entering Celtic Park, through to the evaporation of a commanding lead in the title race due to the recent back-to-back defeat to Kilmarnock and Hearts, it - inarguably - hasn’t all been plain sailing for Celtic so far.
But, as of this morning, they still sit on the top of the Premiership standings. Given that Rangers are five points behind at the time of writing with a couple of games in hand, if they can defeat their city rivals for the second time this season this afternoon then that position will hold a great deal more weight.
The picture then, would look much rosier. With key players coming back from injury like Reo Hatate and Liel Abada and signings to undoubtedly be made to strengthen the squad further still in January, maybe then Rodgers and Celtic could look forward to some calmer seas, and a better press, in the second half of the season.
“I think if you read or listen to everything in the media you would feel we were in constant crisis mode here,” Rodgers said.
“That’s what I feel. But I don’t think that way at all.
“It’s just levels, isn’t it? I think it’s just levels. But for me there is no difference [to the first time I was here]. I just think it’s maybe how it gets reported and how it is out there.
“For me we are still in a good place as a team. We are going to get better. We will hopefully improve the squad. Like I say, we’ll see where we get to at the end of the season.
“It’s another great game for us. I think going into that last game [at Ibrox] we were off the back of not a really good result. We had performed well against St Johnstone but didn’t get the result. This time we are going in with a good feeling.
“I think the big games always give you the chance to impose yourself. We have been a little bit inconsistent. When we have been good, we have been good in games. But we need to find that consistency.
“I think these games speak for themselves. We can go in and perform to a really high level and that will give us a chance to get the result.”
While a win today would almost guarantee a fairer wind behind Celtic going into that second half of the season though, Rodgers doesn’t feel the result this afternoon will determine the destination of the Premiership trophy.
“Not really, no,” he said.
“Especially when you get another couple of games to play.
“We have already won at Ibrox so whatever the result is, and we want to win the game, there are still many more games to play.
“Our focus is to go and play the football that we want to, and see where it takes us.”
There is a school of thought that Rangers’ willingness to come and have a go at Celtic will actually play into their hosts’ hands, with Rodgers’ side often struggling to break down the lower block that the majority of domestic opposition deploy against them. And he doesn’t necessarily disagree.
“I think the Dundee game is the best we’ve played against that system, with the urgency and intensity of it,” he said.
“But like we’ve seen in recent games where the team is also trying to play and trying to score – Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid at home or Hibs – you have space to play in.
“I think for us it’s just about really looking to work, bring our game, and worry about the performance rather than worry about the result.
“If we play how we want to play then we have a really good chance of getting a result out of it.”
This will be the 15th time that Rodgers has been in charge of Celtic for a match against Rangers, and Philippe Clement will be the fifth Rangers manager he has come up against in the opposing dugout.
But there is no diminution of the excitement or fire he has in his belly going into the game, saying that this is the one fixture more than any other throughout his career that gets his ‘juices going’.
“It doesn’t change in terms of they are still big games,” he said.
“There’s still so much on them for the points and for the supporters.
“Each manager who comes in, you look at how they set up tactically and how they get their team to play, and that is the only focus that we have really.
“I’m not so much calmer, there’s always an excitement there, you never lose that element of it.
“They are such special games. Having been involved in Liverpool vs Man Utd, Liverpool vs Everton and games of that magnitude, I still feel this is the one that really gets the juices going for everything, and for many reasons.
“It’s a special game, a unique game, and you never get tired of it, that’s for sure.”
