Who Celtic manager Rodgers cannot wait to see in Dortmund

Brilliant performance. Talk us through that performance for your team then?

Yes, I felt tonight was an opportunity for us to show a real mentality. I think obviously all I know is that before the game and a lot of the focus was on the Champions League game on Tuesday, but I thought we had the chance to show a Champions League mentality, but at home and from the first whistle to the very last whistle, the players were absolutely brilliant. Defensively strong, counter-pressing, incredible, great attitude to win the ball back. I'm not sure what the stats were in the game, but we really respected the percentage that we didn't have the ball. We were really aggressive in getting it back and none more. So in the end, with Daizen in the 86th minute, tracking the back to win the ball. So that's the part of the game that really, really pleased me. The other work then, that gives you the opportunity to be as creative and free-flowing. And obviously, the goals were fantastic goals. So, yes, a perfect night for us.

How pleased were you with those goals? We just saw six of them, all of them were just brilliant finishes, so clinical in the final third.

Yes, I think when I first came in here, people obviously talked about goals and strikers, they're not scoring enough goals. But if you follow my teams and especially my time up here, I like the goals to come from all areas of the field, at the top end and in the midfield area. So I thought all the goals, were very, very good and all right. All the things that we talk about, from a static goal kick, defending that, being tight, being compact, being to the first, second, third ball, because if we can do that, there's going to be space for us in behind. That's where Kyogo's first goal comes from. We win the duels, all these important things, which, as I said, might not look important in the stands, but from a coach and players' perspective, they're absolutely vital. So we got off to a really good start. The second goal was a great goal in the build-up because they had the chance then to press us. We showed great composure and then it ended up with a goal by Paulo Bernardo I forgot the one that was disallowed. It should never have been disallowed. If you watch it back, Austin loses his marker and their player steps into his space and bumps him. Obviously, it goes over, he's hurt and Daizon ends up getting a really good goal, which was disallowed. So I didn't think that should have been disallowed. But then, again, we pick ourselves up, we go, we play some great football and score some really, really good goals. So, yeah, very pleased.

The players must be so eager to take on Borussia Dortmund now in a perfect frame of mind.

Yeah, we're in a really good way. I think mostly for me, the performance level is something that I always concentrate on. And obviously the consequence of that would be results. But I look at the rhythm in the team, I look at the speed in the team, I look at the hunger in the team. Yeah, listen, we're going to play a top team in their home patch. But I'm really excited to see how we can play against it. They're a very good side, got really good players. But for us, we can go there, impose our style in the game. And I always say, in every game we play, as long as we try and we press and we attack and we fight, let's see where it takes us.

And they're very, obviously, clearly, they're very capable of making it difficult for Dortmund. At the very least?

Yeah, 100 per cent. I think we've shown that throughout our pre-season. And we can manage the ball, we can play. We have the attributes in the team which can help us now. We've got real speed, we've got physicality. And we can dig in, which is important.

I think that's 33 goals in nine games. You couldn't ask for a better start to the season. Is this up there with the best form you've seen any of your teams play here?

Yeah, not bad for a team that doesn't play good football. I think that's what we were told last year, wasn't it? I think that was the accusation. We were too slow and we didn't play football and we didn't score enough goals. And so it's not bad for a team that's not playing good football.

Did you manage to also emerge unscathed in terms of injuries?

Yeah, we had Greg that just felt a tightness in his calf in the first 15 minutes. So just precautionary, we take him off and put Alex in. And yeah, we hope that he should be fine. And obviously, it just allowed us to manage some of the other players as well.

Was there a full-staff incident involving Greg? The referee came over to speak to you to address something?

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what it was. I'll need to find that out afterwards.

Are you expecting Cameron to fly to Germany?

I don't know. I'll know tomorrow. See where he's at. And then we'll go on Monday. And if he's not available then, OK. Auston Trusty came in. I thought he was excellent tonight. You've seen his pace, you've seen his power. He's playing off that right side, but he's got good balance in his game. And I thought he did very, very well. So if Cam's not available, then we have someone that can come straight in.

What's your feelings on Dortmund? Do you think they're the team still finding their way this season?

 I think they're a top team. I know that they didn't have a great result against Stuttgart, but I watched Stuttgart against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and they were absolutely brilliant. Stuttgart, you know, they were second in their league last year.  So it didn't surprise me that Stuttgart beat Dortmund. I watched the game last night. OK, it shows you the mentality. They're 2-0 down, but they come back and win 4-2. So make no bones about it. This is a team on a really, really high level. We're top players. But I'm really looking forward to seeing how we measure up against that.

You mentioned Stuttgart, Bernabeu. They had a lot of chances, Brendan, and have served to create chances. You need to be clinical, don't you, at that level?

Yeah, 100%. It was only towards the end that the scoreline was 3-1. But they had big chances. So for us, I think we can create chances, you know, and we can score goals. And that'll be our idea going into the game.

In fairness, Brendan, that's night and day from the first half of last season.

Aye, it is. I think I said the other day that, in fairness, we weren't all on the same page this time last year when we came here. And clearly, that's your job as a manager and a leader, to make sure that everyone is on the same page. And listen, we go with the players last year, but in the main, it's not my leadership style. My style is to correct the mistake, rather than highlight it. But last year was really about attitude and mentality. And so, we see that to where we're at now. Everyone on the same page, everyone focused, everyone playing a high level of football, scoring goals, being really strong defensively.  So when I look at the team, I'm really proud of the team. And I know that there's lots of improvements still to make.

In that sort of space of time, Brendan, people would say that it would be preposterous to go to the Champions League runners-up and possibly get a result. But that shows you the improvement and the progress and the quality of this team. It's not such a fast-fetched thing.

No, absolutely. Why not? We go there, like I said, we go there with good attributes in the team. The physicality and the running power that we have. You know you're going to be in moments of stress when you're away, but you can see our mentality and how we defend and how compact we are and how tight we are. So in those moments when you do have to do that, then when you break out of that, you've got speed in your front line. that can really, really hurt. But we're on to no illusions. It's going to be a brilliant occasion for us to really go and test against a legacy, a top team, with top players. But I can't wait for it now.

Are you looking forward to coming up against a couple of familiar faces, Nuri Sahin and Emre Can?

Yeah, I had Nuri as a young player. He'd come from Real Madrid in my first summer there. Didn't quite get the game time that he wanted really, but there were other players ahead of him at the time. But a good guy, a good professional. And obviously he moved on after our spell. Emre, I signed for Liverpool. I flew to Dusseldorf to meet him and talk to him about coming to Liverpool. And at the time, he was a big talent. He came in, he was absolutely brilliant for me. I played him in a number of positions. Centre-half, controlling midfield player. I played him as an inverted right back where he could come in at midfield at that time. Yeah, really, really good guy. Hasn't quite worked out for him since he's left Liverpool. He obviously went on a free transfer to Juventus and hasn't quite worked out.  But a top player, and a good guy. And yeah, I look forward to seeing him, but I'm looking more so to see us play against him.