Brendan Rodgers demands defensive improvement after Celtic beat wasteful Hibs

Boss Brendan Rodgers admitted Celtic’s first-half defending was “nowhere near” the level required after stretching their lead at the top of the William Hill Premiership with a 3-0 win over wasteful Hibernian.

Midfielder Arne Engels opened the scoring at Parkhead in the sixth minute but the visitors spurned several opportunities before the break with Mykola Kuharevich the biggest culprit, thwarted twice by Hoops goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who was announced as man of the match.

Adam Idah’s header in the 54th minute was turned into his own net by Easter Road skipper Joe Newell before Celtic added a classy third in the 84th minute through substitute Kyogo Furuhashi.

While Hibs dropped back to the bottom of the table, Celtic moved nine points ahead of Aberdeen, who drew 1-1 at home to St Johnstone, and 14 clear of Rangers, who play Ross County on Sunday.

Rodgers, who made five changes for the game, said: “Obviously delighted with the win. Third game this week, on the back of a game (Aberdeen win) in midweek, a tough game away from home.

“So to come here and get the victory and keep a clean sheet, great. Some of our attacking play was very good, scored good goals, created more chances.

“Defensively, for our standard, nowhere near it. Not the level that I would expect and want.

“But sometimes that’s part of when you do make changes and so that’s on me.

“But that defensive side, which is our start point, our pressing, counter-pressing, wasn’t so good in the first half. It was much better in second half.

“So we controlled the game in the second half. Upped it to a level. Our third goal comes from a counter-press from James (Forrest).

“He blindsides the press and that’s more like how we’ve been and that’s why it’s a pleasing win the end. There are always things to improve on our performance.”

Indeed, Rodgers hailed the performance of veteran winger Forrest, who replaced Nicolas Kuhn for the start of the second half.

Rodgers, in his second spell at Celtic Park, said: “James Forrest is one of the best players, probably the best player I’ve ever worked with in my career at retaining the ball on the side.

“People will look at it and say it’s because of maturity. No, no, he was doing that when I was here in 2016.

“The best player at receiving the ball on the side of the pitch when it’s tight, left side or right side, to keep the ball. And then that allows you to sustain the attack. Too often we gave it away in the first half.”

Hibs boss David Gray admitted what he had witnessed was “quite difficult to digest at the moment”.

He said: “We knew that when you get opportunities here you need to take them.

“That’s clear because of how good Celtic are, how dominant they’ve been for a while now.

“We knew it was going to be a real tough test. But it’s mixed emotions because of what I’m asking the players to do, the amount of chances we created.

“The way we played throughout the game, for large periods of the game, showing that bravery and composure on the ball, which I asked for, was great to see.

“The issue is we came away losing the game 3-0, so I’m never going to come away accepting the fact we’ve lost the game.

“But it also shows the effort and desire and how far we’ve come that we are actually coming away from a place like this disappointed.

“I can’t remember a Hibs team coming and creating so many clear-cut chances, so much so their goalkeeper wins man of the match.

“I think that’s a reflection on how well the players have done for periods in the game as well.”