Nir Bitton criticism 'absolutely incredible', says Brendan Rodgers
Friday 25 August 2017 15:57, UK
Brendan Rodgers says criticism of Nir Bitton's performances as a makeshift centre-half is "absolutely incredible".
The midfielder, who has been filling in at the back in the early-season absence of Dedryck Boyata and Erik Sviatchenko, was singled out by some pundits in the wake of Wednesday's defeat in Astana.
Celtic qualified for the group stage of the Champions League despite losing the second leg 4-3 in Kazakhstan.
And speaking ahead of Saturday's Scottish Premiership game against St Johnstone, Rodgers said: "I think some of the criticism that Nir Bitton has received that I have been made aware of is absolutely incredible.
"This is a guy who is a central midfielder, that's his position. I felt it was pretty clear that we had three of our centre halves unavailable to play, two of which had been unavailable for most of the qualification campaign.
"The solutions for us were very minimal, there were very few. So we looked to put Nir in there and a lot of our defending had to be based strategically around having the ball.
"But this is a guy who after the first leg and Kilmarnock last weekend, his foot was in a boot, he couldn't walk for two days.
"Nine out of 10 players wouldn't have played the game in Astana, but he put himself out for the cause and I've got nothing but pure admiration for him. He could easily have pulled out of it and not played."
The Celtic boss even suggested Celtic "might not be in the Champions League" without Bitton's contribution, saying: "I've seen one report saying it was a £30m risk, you could argue it was totally the opposite.
"He filled in for us when others were injured, he brought a calmness and control. Of course, sometimes he got caught out defensively like others but he was able to get the job done.
"I think what happens when you put someone like Nir into the back four, you get something called confirmation bias. They try to look biasedly to confirm why the player shouldn't be playing there.
"I didn't see any comments when he stepped out of defence and made the pass that created the goal for Leigh Griffiths third goal or in Rosenborg when he came in and played fantastic."
