Rodgers identifies Hatate as Celtic’s ‘game-changer’

Here’s what Brendan Rodgers had to say on Celtic TV after his team beat Dundee 3-0 in the Scottish Premiership.

What was your assessment of the game?

I was very pleased with that performance on the back of an international break. Some of the players have been away and only returned yesterday (Friday). I thought the team did very well. In the first half, we created some opportunities and we were unfortunate not to go in front. You need that first goal and you have to give credit to Dundee as they were very organised and made it very difficult. We kept persevering and I congratulate the crowd as it seems a simple thing but at 0-0 at half-time, it can get a little bit edgy. The supporters saw what the team was trying to do.

In games like this here it might be the last 20 to 25 minutes that wins you the game. In the second half, we increased the tempo of the game and I thought the goals that we got were good. We got the penalty and after that, we looked like we were going to score more. It was a very good second half and I am really pleased with the clean sheet.

It seemed like we had more of a rhythm in the 2nd half, and that could be because we had two weeks off, but it’s still hard to get the win against a team like Dundee if you don’t have that rhythm. It takes patience and time, and we want to play fast, but you’ve got to give Dundee a lot of credit – they worked really hard and their keeper made some great saves. We thought we had scored, but it turned out we had to wait for something to happen. We kept pushing and eventually our quality came through.

As a manager, you must be pleased as it felt like a real squad performance today. There were some great individual performances when it came to assists and goals. Did you think that some good performances came from everywhere on the pitch?