Celtic 'stood still in the summer', says Rodgers

The reigning champions ran out 4-2 winners over Hibernian at Parkhead, but as well as praising the team's performance, Brendan Rodgers was key to also focus on his club's lack of transfer activity this summer.

With the win, Celtic now only trail leaders Hearts by three points, but Rodgers was still lamenting his side's lack of form at the beginning of the campaign. 

In his interview with 'BBC Scotland' after the game, Rodgers said: ""Now I sense us getting that fluency and energy back,I thought we played very, very well today. It was always going to be a good game with two teams that have an intent to attack and I thought we were outstanding."

Of the lack of transfer activity, Rodgers was clear in his disapproval, saying: "In the summer we wanted to go into another gear and we didn't. We stood still. And slowly from then, we've started to move and we've moved forward and forward each week."

He continued: ""We're certainly getting that feeling of our intensity back and intent in the game. I think they'll go away absolutely delighted."

In contrast 'Hibs' boss Neil Lennon was solely keen to analyse his player's performance against Celtic, telling 'BBC Scotland: ""I am disappointed. First half I didn't think we performed anywhere near the level where we can and the second half we were great. I'll take that. We caused a lot of problems a lot of teams don't do. We gambled a little, I get that. That's just my way."

Lennon continued: "We want to be attacking and get goals. Celtic were just better than us in certain areas. A couple of regrets from some players, but overall we came here to play, we came here to put Celtic under pressure. "

He concluded on a positive note, saying: ""We are fine. I'm not going to beat them for that. I'll take responsibility for the formation in the first half but there were a lot of individual performances."

'Hibs' now sit fifth in the table on 17 points after nine matches, five points behind leaders Hearts.