Brendan Rodgers knows Celtic are in good place to respond to Atletico defeat

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is confident the culture they have created will allow them to quickly move on from their difficult night in Madrid.

Rodgers’ side lost 6-0 to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League following Daizen Maeda’s first-half red card on Tuesday.

The Japan attacker will be missing for about six weeks with the knee injury he suffered in making the challenge that led to his VAR-assisted dismissal.

But Rodgers has challenged the rest of his players to brush the defeat off, once lessons have been learned, and get back to winning ways against Aberdeen in the cinch Premiership on Sunday.

“That’s why we coach and it’s why we manage,” Rodgers said.

“I always say, after any loss, you have a grieving period for 24 hours.

“It’s not nice, it’s hard to come out your house, you don’t want to be seen. But then you move on. You have to go again.

“Like in life, you can’t dwell too much and that’s why we get paid as managers and coaches. We get paid to train the players, to coach the players, to speak about confidence.

“Because there is no doubt, if two players are the same and one has confidence, and one doesn’t, the player with the confidence is much better. And that’s my job, to ensure my speeches and the sessions we have are there to improve the confidence levels of players.

“I have seen after the disappointment they have come back in and been very good so we move on to the next game.

“If you don’t go again, someone else wins. So you have to show the strength, whether as a player or manager.

“That’s why an environment isn’t something you buy, it’s something you create. We have an environment which is based around honest appraisal of performance, and then you draw a line under it and move on.”

On the back of the heavy defeat, criticism has come the way of the Celtic board for their transfer policy and Rodgers over his tactics when his team went down to 10 men.

But the former Liverpool and Leicester manager protects himself from the external appraisal.

“From a manager’s perspective it’s easy for me because I don’t hear the reaction,” he said.

“Numbers of years ago, in order to regulate the pressure of being a manager and a coach, I decided that, whilst still having empathy with people and understanding feelings of people, I don’t really care less what people say.

“I really focus on the game, the team and the players, in order to give us a win in our next game, and everyone will be happy again.”