Back in December, having recently dropped points against Motherwell, Celtic found themselves 1-0 down away to St Johnstone at half-time after producing a dire first 45 minutes.
The Bhoys were not playing anything close to their potential and serious question marks were being raised about the direction of travel at that point of the season.
Celtic went on to deliver a second-half comeback thanks to goals from Callum McGregor, Matt O’Riley and James Forrest, delivering the three points.
Afterwards, Brendan Rodgers revealed that his half-time blast at the players in the dressing room was probably the angriest of his entire career as a manager.
Now, McGregor has shared why that was important for his teammates, speaking in a season review on Sky Sports.
Callum McGregor on pivotal Brendan Rodgers team talk
The captain joked initially: “It was scary, aye.”
He then went on to explain: “That’s one of the brilliant things about the manager, when he speaks you listen. It’s in a calm way but there can be some serious words in there that you need to take notice of.
“To see him even a level above that and be angry with the players, it showed just how bad were in the first half and how much we’d let ourselves down. Ultimately that’s why you get angry, because you’ve let yourself down or you’ve let the team down or you’ve let the supporters down.
“We’re all in elite-level football so we all understand that 45 minutes of football can kill your season and you need to get it back. With that reaction at half-time at that point you think, ‘We need to go here, we need to motor.’
“We were 1-0 down and we managed to turn the game into 3-1. Even after that, he’s still angry because he wondered why we didn’t play like that in the first half. There was a lesson in mentality there for the players.
“That’s something we’ve been trying to stress as much as we possibly can. Don’t just let 45 minutes of football slide by because sometimes that can be the 45 minutes that kills you.”
Celtic eventually kicked into a consistent gear
It wasn’t all plain sailing from that point onwards. More difficult results in December followed but ultimately the Bhoys would end up losing just one match in 25 in the second half of the season to deliver a league and cup double.
McGregor clearly feels that moments such as the one at McDiarmid Park were pivotal in instilling the mentality needed to do that. The manager deserves credit for getting that tune out of the players.
The captain is so aligned with Rodgers and that relationship is key to Celtic’s ambitions moving forward. They’ll have the squad marshalled and ready for another push for trophies on all fronts next season. I suspect less anger will be needed as the Bhoys pull closer and closer together.