Brendan Rodgers is 'far from stupid' and appears to have learned from mistakes at Rangers upon his return to Celtic.

That's according to former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan.

Rodgers, who sealed a sensational return to Parkhead this summer to replace Ange Postecoglou, has endured a fairly bumpy start to life back at the club.

With that said, a 1-0 victory over Rangers in the derby prior to the international break has painted a much brighter picture for the Hoops heading into the next section of the campaign. 

Celtic are top of the Premiership and have Champions League group stage football to look forward to this month.

However, they did crash out of the League Cup at the last 16 stage, as Kilmarnock deservedly progressed in the tournament. This meant that the defence of the treble won under Ange Postecoglou was over before it really started.

A 0-0 draw at home to St Johnstone followed, which also rightly irked the Celtic faithful.

But Strachan reckons Rodgers has done the right thing by slowly but surely implementing his own style on the team after the success of 'Ange ball'.

The ex-Scotland manager feels this is where Giovanni van Bronckhorst ultimately failed at Rangers after Steven Gerrard.

He told Gambling Zone: "I think the most important thing for the Celtic fans is winning games and feeling superior – I’ve said this all along.

"Nobody talks about the style of Brendan Rodgers or comparing the football he’s playing to Ange Postecoglou.

"All the fans want is to feel superior to their biggest rivals and to feel superior, you have to win, which is what he did against Rangers.

"Of course, after the match, Michael Beale is the manager who is feeling the pressure, but it could have easily been the other way around.

"I don’t think that either manager will be particularly pleased with how their teams have played in these opening games of the season.

"Brendan is far from a stupid man. He must have known that when he went into the job, taking over from Ange Postecoglou, how difficult it would be to follow him.

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"I’m not talking about just keeping to the same standards that Ange and his team set, but in many ways, he would be wary of not making too many changes while also having the self-awareness to not completely plagiarise what Ange did with his tactical set-up. He wouldn’t sit back and think to himself, ‘let’s keep everything exactly the same’.

"There are always tweaks and tactics that managers will naturally defer too. Brendan knows that if he tries to change things completely, that can be disruptive, so it’s about finding the right balance.

"Giovanni van Bronkhorst had that problem at Rangers. Gerrard had a successful system using inverted wingers whereas Gio van Bronkhorst wanted his wingers to stay out wide.

"He changed the style that Steven Gerrard had successfully put in place and went for a brand of football that was typically Dutch – we all know what happened there.

"It’s very difficult for a manager to take over from a successful coach, especially one that was playing the football that Ange was playing. He played a brand of football that nobody had seen at Celtic before.

"We also know that Brendan has been very successful playing his way."