'Great coach' Rodgers' treble chance 'no surprise'
Kasper Schmeichel is not surprised that "great coach" Brendan Rodgers is on the brink of becoming the first Celtic manager to complete three domestic trebles.
Goalkeeper Schmeichel is likely to be one of the first names on Rodgers' team lines as he selects his side to face Aberdeen in Saturday's Scottish Cup final at Hampden.
The 38-year-old has played under the Northern Irishman at Leicester City and now Celtic, who have already won the Scottish Premiership and League Cup this season.
"The thing I can say about Brendan is he provides a framework, not just on the pitch but off the pitch of what it means to be a professional footballer and what is expected of you," the Denmark keeper said.
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"He's incredibly clear in his messaging of what he wants and how he wants it done."
Rodgers joined Celtic in 2016 a few months after leaving Liverpool and won all six domestic competitions in his next two seasons.
A seventh, the League Cup, would follow in December 2018, but he would relinquish the opportunity of a third treble by leaving for Leicester two months later.
Celtic were eight points clear at the top of the Premiership at the time, with Neil Lennon completing the title win and adding the Scottish Cup, but now Rodgers has a second chance to surpass the legendary Jock Stein's two trebles.
"It is no surprise to me that he has success wherever he goes because he provides the players with a platform to go and perform and that's the mark of a great coach," Schmeichel suggested.
"Football now is so detail orientated. You have to be so clear about every aspect you want. He is a very detail-orientated person and he likes things to be done a certain way.
"He demands certain standards wherever he goes and it's up to players to rise up to those standards and to live by those standards and those values."
Schmeichel said Rodgers was clear when he arrived at Leicester about what it meant to play for the club and that was heightened with Celtic as "he has the DNA of the club already within him" as a boyhood fan.
"He leaves you in no doubt what it means to be a Celtic player and the responsibility to bear that shirt," the goalkeeper said.
"His methods are always evolving. He's a very modern coach with traditional values and I think the best thing for a player - you are left in no doubt what is expected of you. There are no grey areas.
"He's very clear about what he expects on the pitch and very clear what he expects of you off the pitch. That always creates an environment that players thrive in and that's shown everywhere he's been."
Aberdeen, who finished fifth in the Premiership, have not beaten Celtic in 30 meetings since 2018 and November's 6-0 thrashing in the League Cup final was just one of three heavy defeats by the Glasgow side for Jimmy Thelin's side this season.
However, Schmeichel insists that it "would never enter our minds" that completing the treble is a foregone conclusion.
"We will be taking this very seriously, like any other game, with the utmost respect for the opposition and what they can do and their threats," he added.
"If you take your foot off the peddle just a micro percent, any level, they'll beat you - teams are that good now. There are no easy games any more."
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