Kennedy on why opportunities at Celtic 'don't come round every week'

First of all, let's just look back to last week. Obviously, it was a defeat. Was it hard to be overly critical of the team and the players given what had been achieved in the build up to that? 

No, I think we weren't overly critical. I think we just analysed the game as we normally would. It was obviously a disappointing performance from us. Firstly, the result wasn't what we wanted, but more importantly the performance. We never quite reached the levels we expected, and we know that we can reach. That was probably the most disappointing thing. Over the course of the season, we can't criticise the group or the squad as they have done terrific things and have been very consistent and put themselves in a great position now where we already have two trophies already and are in the cup final. They've been a great group; they've worked really hard this year and they deserve all the praise they've received. Again, we have set very high standards at this club. The manager sets them every week and there were certainly some things to look at come Monday morning. 

Does the fact you've got the Scottish Cup final coming up make it easier to kind of reset and refocus? 

Yeah, there's always that drive. Players are always stimulated by playing for the club and every game you go out, you want to perform. At the end of the day, they are competitors when the competition is there. There is always that motivation. So the fact we have the final still to go, it's it gives us that stimulus right through to the end of the season. We're not just kind of playing games and looking to finish. We want to finish as strong as we can and it's important to get the right form and the right condition and put ourselves in the right place going into a cup final because, again, on the day you have to put in a performance that merits the win. So, we'll be fully prepared for that, I'm sure. 

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On a similar kind of theme, despite the fact that I'm sure you and Ange (Postecoglou) have said that the players won't allow themselves to think that their job done over the next few games. How difficult is that? The leagues wrapped up and the Scottish Cup Final is a few weeks away. Is it difficult to stop the players from adopting the kind of going-through-the-motions mentality until you get to the cup final?

No, that comes from us as well. We go out and drive the standards. We set the training up. We're the ones who prepare the players for all the games and we get them in the right condition and get them to a kind of peak performance to go out there and perform on a weekend or whatever it might be. We wouldn't allow that and the manager's got very high standards in that respect. He savours every game we have, every moment we have as a football player, or a part of a coaching team and we've got to maximise every opportunity we get. We were obviously disappointed last week but we've got to look forward to the weekend again and the fact there's a cup final. There's always places to play for. Nobody's guaranteed a spot on the team. If somebody is in the team for the next two or three league games and they're not performing, then someone will be right behind them waiting to take their spot for the cup final. Firstly comes the weekend. We have got to put things right and get the performance levels back to what we expect and what we know we can get to. Obviously, next week we'll work through that and then when the cup final comes along, as I said, we'll be ready to go again. 

What is your team news? How are you looking on the selection front? 

Just the same as last week. No changes from last week. Everything's the same as it was. 

You've been around Celtic for many years now. There's the talk of the treble. Obviously, the league is wrapped up and you are still focusing on the league games but the main aim now is to win the cup and complete the three trophies. How does this team compare to other treble-winning teams you've been involved with and just other Celtic teams you've been involved with in general? 

I think every team's different in terms of the make up of it and the dynamic of the group and the type of players and personalities they have. This is a group of young players and a lot of them have come in from different places. They have maybe not won so much, but they've fit right into the clubs about. They've embraced everything the clubs about, they've taken on the challenges and there's still work to do. We can't sit here and be thinking the treble is around the corner because we'll still got football to play and we would never get into that kind of mindset. We know we have still got to work hard. This week the training has been very intense and the training in the last two days has been of a very high standard and that's what carries us there and ultimately the hunger of the group and the way they want to work brings consistency and the consistency then brings success over the course of the season. That's what all groups have had a real hunger and desire to win and do well and have high standards and continually churn out results because it's not easy in terms of going and winning trophies year after year or winning multiple trophies in a season. It takes a lot of work from everyone, all the players, the manager who meticulously put this team together and put the squad together and brought them all together for the one cause. He's very good in that respect in terms of giving them a common purpose and goal. He just relentlessly drives it into them every week in terms of what they need to do to achieve big things. They've done very well. We are in a good position, and we are in a good place, but we certainly won't take it for granted, we just need to make sure we go and finish things off. 

You're talking there about how the manager united the squad behind one cause and how much he's helped the players. How much has he helped you as a coach? How do you feel you've improved since Ange has come in?

Again, it's been really good. I've got a really good relationship with them. It's gone very well. He gives us a lot of responsibility in different areas which is good for myself and keeps me busy. Every manager I worked with, I will take something off, but he's certainly coming in with a different style. So again, from a coaching perspective, it's good to learn from someone different who sees the game slightly differently and the big thing with him is that he doesn't kind of veer off track. He knows where he wants to go. He knows how he wants things done, and that makes you know our job as coaches easier because we know his expectations. We know the standards he demands and that's our job to go out and deliver that and he trusts you with that. It's been a good working relationship. He's done a terrific job since coming in. He's came in cold in terms of like from the other side of the world pretty much on his own. He's had to get to know a lot of people. He's had to rebuild the squad. He pretty much brought instant success to the club, and he's built on that once more. He's been a great addition to the club. He's been a great addition for me and everyone else here at the club involved and long may that continue. 

You mentioned some of the rotation. Is that one of the plus points, if you like, of having the league wrapped up now that you can say to lads, right, go out and take your opportunity, play yourself into a position to be involved in the cup final over these remaining games?

Yeah, I think game by game, there'll be opportunities there for guys to play. It's not just happened this year as I think we have seen last year we had a lot of rotation even in the full-back positions, which you don't see regularly. We were regularly rotating full-backs and wide players as well as midfield players at different times. So, when the squad's strong and we see them training day in, day out and working really hard. I think the manager can see for himself the guys who are waiting on that opportunity and he's good in terms of picking his moments to give the guys oxygen and giving them that opportunity to go in and perform. In the main, over the course of the two seasons, the performance levels have stayed at a very good level and not dropped. That's always the worry and in terms of working in the past and in previous year when do you rotate? Do you rotate too much? How many people do you rotate if you rotate too much does a performance level drop? We've got a really strong group here who work every single day to be ready for the weekend. Whether they are going to play 10 minutes or 90 minutes they know that when they step onto that pitch what's demanded of them, what the manager expects of them, and they have been excellent in terms of going out and living up to those standards. 

I don't know if you saw Stephen Robinson's comments this morning saying that St Mirren as a club at a high level have taken the decision that will be no guard of honour. Is that something that's even on your radar? Is that something that even enters the the kind of the psyche at all, or do you just get on with the football side of things?

We can't really affect that anyway. So it doesn't make any difference. We'll just look at our performance go out there and try and win the game. That's all we do. 

St Mirren have still got something to play for in terms of their league position. Do you think that gives your players an extra focus because there will still be a bit of an edge to the game? 

I don't think we'll change our focus. We know we probably underperformed last week as the result wasn't certainly what we were looking for and the performance was way off. So, for us, it's about correcting that more than worrying too much about the opposition. Stephen's done a terrific job there with his staff and in terms of what they've done at St Mirren. They've been one of the opponents this year who been really difficult in games and had tough games against them. We've had to work hard in the games to get results, so it'll be the same tomorrow. They'll be well organised and very well drilled. Everyone knows their job and we've played them enough times to realise what they're about. The manager always says that it's about what we do. We know we can affect what we do. We know the levels we can reach, so it's up to us to go out there and try and get to that level of performance and we know if we're performing at a very high level we have the ability to score goals, keep clean sheets and go and win games, so that'll be the challenge for us tomorrow. 

You know you're back in front of the home fans tomorrow and it must feel like quite some time since you've played a home game. Do you think that that's something is something the players are looking forward to and will give them an extra boost, especially after last weekend? 

I think so. I think it's always a special place in terms of playing at Celtic Park in front of your own fans. It's been a good few weeks now and obviously, things have happened over those few weeks. So, it'll be nice to have a full house tomorrow in front of our home fans and again ultimately, we want to give them something back which is a high-level performance. That's what we will try and do.

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Celtic's possession last weekend was 67 per cent. That's the highest of all six derbies this season, despite the result. Does that stat emphasise the importance of decision-making in the team's current system and making sure the team don't become too safe and build up when they are facing a press like Rangers did or is it remaining patient on the whole and avoiding panic? 

I think it is a bit of both. Rangers' strategy in the game was that they had two quick players at the front end, and they gave up possession at times. We were probably as wasteful as we've been in most of our games in terms of decision-making and in terms of execution. You know, the technical side of the game, we missed too many passes. We made too many bad decisions and that led to a lot of turnovers and gave Rangers the opportunities to hit us on the counter-attack and catch us when we weren't quite organised. There was certainly a lot to look at in the game, which was as much a bad result and poor performance. That's a reminder for us to know as a group that we have constantly got to be on it. You can't drop kind of 10 per cent because we know how much that affects our game. So again, it's just that focus in terms of in the right moments we have to be quick with our attacks because that's we're all about. I think we've seen so many times in terms of when we see the opportunities to break forward quickly and playing in the front third early and get early deliveries into the box, you know we can be lethal at times. We do that at the right times but also at the same time if a team set up to stop that then we have got to work our way up the pitch and be more patient, pin them in there and wait for our opportunities to dominate teams when they are up and in and around their box. We know we can sustain a bit more pressure, which again we we lacked last week as well. So it is the balance if a team give us space to attack early we'll do it, but at the same time, if teams are going to sit back in there, we have got to be aggressive with the ball but sustain the pressure up and up and around their box. 

I remember Kenny Dalglish giving you your debut 20 odd years ago. How important is it for us to keep that tradition going and look at bringing in some of the B team players who have performed very well this season and who have just won the Glasgow Cup and maybe get some minutes before the end of the season?

You are making me feel old there. It was a long time ago. Yeah, Kenny obviously give my debut, which was a very proud moment for myself. I think that's a big part of the club.  The difficulty is when with a big club the opportunity isn't there as much as with other clubs who maybe don't have the resources to bring in the players we do and the demand to win all time, but you know, over the course of time especially when I've been here there's always a player every season or two seasons who comes in and around the first team. In the last 6-9 months, we've had Bosun (Lawal), Ben Summers and Rocco Vata who train us every day. So again, that's players we have looked at and thought they're ones we want to try and develop and when we can bring them up with the first team into training regularly, you certainly see that difference. There's more demand on them. There's a higher level of tempo and intensity in how they play. You've seen some of them enter the pitch. So again, that's something the manager spoke about it in terms of last year. He made some changes to the B squad. Certainly, he has more of an eye on it now.  Hopefully, in the seasons ahead, we'll see us a steady flow, and young talents coming through. Again, it's about being ready for the opportunity when it comes along and you've got to take it because as I said, it's Celtic and they don't come around every week.