Brendan Rodgers felt Celtic’s display at Ibrox was as poor as any he’d presided over in 21 derbies across his two spells in charge.
Second best in every department, the champions only forced stand-in home keeper Liam Kelly into one meaningful save as their lead at the top of the Premiership was cut to 11 points.
Acknowledging his side could have no complaints about the comprehensive loss, the Celtic manager, who fell to just his second defeat to Rangers, found it hard to take any positives.
‘I mentioned to the players that I didn’t think we could be any worse in the second half,’ he said.
‘(We were) a little bit better, but not much better. I’ve got experience of coming from behind when we’ve been here, so I know we can do it.
‘But we never really had that reaction today, I didn’t feel that.
Brendan Rodgers looks crestfallen as his Celtic side crash to a 3-0 defeat
Defenders Scales and Cameron-Vickers were helpless as Hagi fired home the opener
There was more misery for Celtic as Robin Propper scored the second in the 66th minute
‘I didn’t think we were so aggressive and had that, as I said, that quality in our game, and that precision in our passing, in order to hurt them.
‘So, yeah, probably over the course of the couple of spells, that performance certainly wasn’t up there.’
Behind when Ianis Hagi found the net with a low strike, Celtic’s anticipated recovery simply didn’t materialise.
Rodgers was left to reflect on an error-strewn display that offered little hope of his side extending their unbeaten run over their great rivals to eight matches.
‘We’re very disappointed,’ added Rodgers. ‘I thought the best team won, so congratulations to Rangers.
‘I thought they had the edge in the game that we never had. We started okay, first three or four minutes, but then we made too many mistakes with the ball today — obviously, one of them leading to their first goal. From that, it gives them a lift to defend that lead and gives the stadium a lift. And from that, we never really responded.
‘So, yeah, attacking-wise, again, we never had much in the game. So, really, really disappointed with the performance and clearly the result.’
Rodgers’ main gripe was that Rangers appeared to want the victory more than his players.
Rodgers felt that his Celtic team never got going in the Ibrox match
Danilo celebrates scoring goal No3 for Rangers in the 81st minute
‘Well, they definitely showed that,’ he said. ‘I said it before the game. It wouldn’t matter if we were 50 points clear.
‘Celtic-Rangers is everything for our supporters, for people everywhere.
‘But we never played with that edge today and that personality that the team has shown consistently.
‘So, yeah, as a collective, we just weren’t quite there. And, like I said, the first goal is from a mistake. We must do better from the corner and then, obviously, we give the ball away.
‘So, we were just very passive, I felt, today, which is unlike us. And, like I said, we got punished for that.’
So poor were his side in the opening half that Rodgers contemplated making changes at the interval.
Explaining why he held fire until the 64th minute, he said: ‘I wanted to give the players the opportunity to see if we could get that sort of reaction.
‘We went for the extra 10-15 minutes and nothing really happened. We started the second half okay, but, after that, we made the changes.
‘We didn’t control the midfield and made just too many slack passes. As I said, our possession game has been at a really high level for a long period and, with that, you get the possibility to penetrate.
‘I thought we gave the ball away too easy today, when we were under pressure, but also when we were under no pressure, we were kicking the ball out.
‘So, yes, it’s one of the games you have to look at. It’s not nice, especially when you’re a supporter watching that, but we have to analyse it and be better next game.’
Celtic skipper Callum McGregor and Rangers captain Raskin are involved in a flashpoint
Celtic boss Rodgers consoles midfielder Arne Engels at full-time
Rodgers confirmed that Arne Engels would have started ahead of Paulo Bernardo had the £11million Belgian midfielder not felt under the weather.
‘He woke up this morning not feeling well. He was sick,’ he explained. ‘I spoke to him and we decided he’d go on the bench and Paulo would come in and start.’
The only consolation for the Celtic manager was that his side are still in a commanding position in the title race with the first defeat of the season meaning they’ve still only shipped seven points to date.
‘I can look at it from two perspectives,’ he said.
‘I think I can analyse the game today and see that we weren’t very good and the better team won. So, I can accept that.
‘The bigger picture is we reached the halfway point in the season, 11 points clear. The players have been absolutely first class up until this point in so many ways.
‘And this setback today, from losing the game, you can learn from and be better for going forward. But, on the game, the best team won, deserved to win.’
