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Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic will have to face their penalty challenge before it costs them any more points.
The Hoops boss is disappointed that his team has already failed three times this season, with Reo Hatate, David Turnbull and Luis Palma to blame. At Parkhead on Saturday, Palma denied Motherwell goalkeeper Liam Kelly before Turnbull scored a penalty to give them the lead.
But the Scottish Premiership champions were knocked out by Stuart Kettlewell’s side, who equalized late on through Jon Obika. Rodgers admits it’s a factor that needs to be addressed quickly. He said: “Before coming here I thought there had been a number of missed Consequences (Celtic also missed 3 last season). These are decisive moments in games and you have to be in a position to enjoy them.
“You’re not going to have a three, four or five advantage in games. You have this opportunity, you have to take advantage of it. It’s anything that the players who are going to take the consequences represent every day.
“We have to stay focused on that because it’s a skill. You can’t reflect the pressure, but consequences are a skill, and it’s a skill we want to be better at. If one player misses them, of course, they walk away. “
“Luis has already taken them and he hasn’t missed a single one. You’ll be disappointed today. It’s never smart to miss and the goalkeeper makes a decent save. It’s all about variety with penalty takers. I know he trained and didn’t go through it.
“He ran to the left of the goalkeeper. But he went the other way and that’s the selection he made. He’s brave enough to capture them, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t take advantage of this opportunity.
Rodgers lost trouble at home for the second time this season after drawing 0-0 with St Johnstone. They still have a nine-point lead at the top of the Premiership table, but if Rangers win any of their remaining games, they will. There will be three left. Afterwards, the coach said: “We won the game because we were tired of the ball.
“We’ve gone into a lot of smart spaces and had the chance to get more comfortable. That’s the danger when you’re not. “Thanks to Motherwell, they defended very well and we never had enough to break them down today.
“It was probably their only effort in the second half and we never defended it, which is wonderful because we defended set pieces well. It’s very frustrating. There was just a lack of freshness and dynamism in the final third.
Rodgers now has to take his players to Lazio in the Champions League on Tuesday night. He will be without the suspended Palma and Daizen Maeda for the trip to Rome, but he expects James Forrest to return after missing the draw with Motherwell.
Rodgers said: “We can’t live on that. It’s disappointing, we dropped two tracks and we’re going to be looking to get them back. Now we have to do it and prepare with a very smart mindset for Tuesday. “
“It’s a game at the highest level. James deserves to be available. During the foreign break he had a challenge with his glutes, so he didn’t exercise much.