Craig Gordon appeared on a recent edition of the BBC’s Sportsound podcast, where he shared his thoughts on his time playing under current Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers at Celtic.
Gordon recently departed from Parkhead following the expiration of his Hoops contract, and it has now been revealed that he is set to re-join Hearts, who were relegated from Scotland’s top tier following the cancellation of the 2019/20 season back in May.
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The goalkeeper first joined Celtic back in July 2014 and during his recent appearance on the BBC’s Sportsound podcast, one of the topics that the 37-year-old discussed was the time that he spent playing under Brendan Rodgers, who joined the Hoops in May 2016 and remained Celtic manager until February 2019.
Gordon said: “I found it fascinating to now be involved as trying to be a playmaker, trying to organise what positions the players in front of me took up to receive the ball and it was a massive onus on the goalkeeper to be able to put these guys in the position and then find them with a pass.
“If the guys got in their positions, it was a relatively easy pass. It wasn’t anything too difficult that he wanted the goalkeeper to do – most of the time 10, 15 yard passes, if possible, but it was all about getting the guys into the right areas to receive the ball in the first place.
“It was a huge difference from what I’d been used to, to go into this, but it’s something that I will take with me for the rest of my career and hopefully, into coaching. That was a huge learning curve for me over those first couple of years [under Rodgers].”
Did Craig Gordon become a better player under Brendan Rodgers?YES
NO
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TIF Thoughts…
As per the Express in August 2016, Gordon demonstrated a determination to remain Celtic’s number one upon Rodgers’ arrival at Parkhead, despite the Northern Irish coach signing Dorus de Vries to compete for that position, which this report claims led to ‘question marks’ being raised over Gordon’s future.
However, as reported in an article that was published by The Scotsman in December 2016, Gordon quickly proved his ability to Rodgers. This article quotes the former Celtic boss as saying: “That’s a player who six months ago was getting rid of the ball. Now he’s passing it. There is a difference. He’s a footballer, not a goalkeeper.”
While Gordon has stated that he experienced a “huge difference” playing under Rodgers, it appears as though he rose to the challenge and the 37-year-old may deserve credit for that.