Brendan Rodgers likens Celtic team to boxers and takes aim at critics ahead of Premiership title celebrations

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has taken the opportunity to hit back at his critics after securing another Premiership title. The Hoops rubber-stamped their title with a comfortable win over Kilmarnock during the week, and they get to be in celebration mode this weekend.

The Hoops will lift the Premiership title in front of their own fans, and attention will then turn to winning another trophy with a date with Rangers in the cup final still to come. While Celtic have outrun Rangers with a game to spare in the end, it wasn’t all plain sailing in Rodgers’ first season back, and there have been times when the Northern Irish boss has come in for criticism.

As he prepares to lift another title, Rodgers has hit back at those critics, saying in his latest press conference: “I'm not made of wood. We all have feelings. We're all built in different ways, I feel I can deal with pressure and those situations. But it still doesn't make you immune to everything. What experience has given me is not to become too emotional with words.

"I can trace back to August, when the headlines were that I was under massive pressure. That was in August and it's continued right the way through. I had to show mental strength like the team has had to do and eventually, the work that we did came through in the end. It's been a challenging season in ways that I didn't think it was going to be.

"A little bit awkward and a little bit of feeling (from the fans) when I came back, which I totally get. It's satisfying, is what you would say. I'm satisfied in the work we've been able to do.”

Ahead of a weekend that will feature a huge fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, Rodgers added a boxing analogy when discussing his team. “It's surprising a little that so many people didn't see what was happening around the team, knowing how my teams operate and how they play, how they attack,” he added.

“It's not full-out attack. I tend to think of my teams like a top boxer. A top boxer isn't throwing punches all the time, he needs to put his guard up now and again. My teams are reflective of that. They attack, they're aggressive, they score goals, and they defend well. Clearly there was a reason and a purpose as to why it wasn't functioning quite the same. It certainly wasn't that I had lost the hunger, or that I was going through the motions, or lost the stomach for the fight. So it's been very satisfying."