Brendan Rodgers’ critics proved absolutely correct even though the Celtic boss won’t admit it – Keith Jackson

He doesn’t like being criticised. And you can’t really criticise him for that.

But, even though Brendan Rodgers does not enjoy having his work called into question – and especially not by those who have ‘never played or managed’ at his level – at least he was big enough to take some of it on board in Bergamo the other night. Because what Celtic’s manager served up against Atalanta on Wednesday night was as close to a tactical masterclass as anything he has come up with during his two stints in charge of Scotland’s champions.

Maybe even more than that, it felt very much like a coming-of-age performance from the manager and his players, as if they might finally have discovered a template which can be rolled out and relied upon on nights as testing as these in European football’s most elite environment.

Yes, Rodgers may still have been bristling afterwards when he said something or other about not knowing if his side’s performance was ‘pragmatic enough for some people’. And, true, he probably should have been bigger than that. But who cares?

The bottom line here is that Rodgers was flexible enough to tailor his team specifically for a contest against a highly dangerous and more talented group and give his own players the best chance of getting out of Lombardy relatively unscathed.

Credit must be given to the men out there on the pitch as, not only was the onus on them to carry out their instructions to a tee but, perhaps even more importantly, they had dredge up the grit and desire required to stand up to what was being thrown at them from a swashbuckling Italian outfit.

And, as a result of these tactical alterations and Celtic’s sheer force of will, they kept a clean sheet in a Champions League away game for the first time