Brendan Rodgers gives Celtic 'strategy' reminder to Champions League doubters as he targets Euro learning curve

It was a promise made on his first day back in the job. More than that, it was a way of selling his reappointment to the Celtic support who still needed some convincing.

Brendan Rodgers was going to deliver them with the one thing Ange Postecoglou could not – a side fit for purpose on the European stage. One game into this season’s Champions League campaign, the Northern Irishman already has a job on his hands. A chastening opening night defeat in De Kuip on Tuesday has seen to that.

Yet two days on, Rodgers was in reflective mood, pondering the next step for a side he is building on the job, intertwining a bunch of inexperienced new signings with established old campaigners. Two of these new boys, Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm, learned painful lessons against Feyenoord, both seeing red and acting their age when Rodgers required them to behave like men.

Rodgers said: “You know the strategy here. You’re bringing in young players, developing them and getting them to a level. Part of that learning is domestic and European in which they will make mistakes.

“Sadly it’s when they get to that level, when they have matured and experienced, you lose them. But it is what it is. That’s a part of the dance really, they are going to make mistakes.

“It’s something that hopefully with experience, they can get better and improve. It doesn’t undermine what we’re trying to do, it’s just the nature of it. You can have a group of really young players – it’s just about the level.

“Red Bull Salzburg went to Benfica and won 2-0 with a lot of young players so that’s what we aspire to – making improvements and maximising the players that we have and just getting better. That will be the difference if the model is to bring them in