What the Celtic pundits said as mentality questioned after St Johnstone defeat (2025)

Neil Lennon, Kris Boyd and James McFadden were on Sky duty and were pinpointed issues for Brendan Rodgers to address

Brendan Rodgers will be questioning the mentality of some of his players after their shock defeat to St Johnstone.

Celtic had the chance to set up a title clinching party at home to Kilmarnock last week, but were stunned by the rock bottom Saints who took all three points thanks to Daniels Balodis' first half header.

That means the champagne is on ice for another three weeks until after the split – unless Aberdeen can do them a favour against Rangers on Sunday – with the two doing it all again at Hampden in the Scottish Cup semi-final in a fortnight's time.

But Rodgers was less than impressed with his team's inability to take the opportunity presented to them and that they only upped their intensity after falling behind to Simo Valakari's men.

And it's left question marks over some players, especially after recent defeats to Hibs and Rangers, which ocurred after similarly slow starts.

Here's what the pundits had to say about a rare Celtic defeat this season.

Neil Lennon

"Football is really unpredictable. I thought Fisher was amazing in the second half. They got the goal early on and were able to hold out. I thought Celtic were absolutely excellent second half and did everything but score. They just wasted 45 minutes in the first half really.

"Brendan Rodgers has high standards and the players aren't living up to those standards, particularly the way they're starting games. Against Rangers and now Hibs and St Johnstone in the last six games they've lost and you can see he's unhappy about it. He hasn't berated them but he's obviously seen something in a few individuals that he's obviously not happy with."

Kris Boyd

Asked if Rodgers was maybe now questioning the mentality of some of his players, Boyd replied: "He is, based on his interview and rightly so. I don't know what has happened to Nicolas Kuhn. In the first part of the season he was unbelievable, there's no getting away from it but we've only seen glimpses.

"Engels is another one. I know he's a young boy and it's £11million. We've seen glimpses where he does look like a player but he doesn't do enough for me. Hatate drifts in and out of games and today I thought he was really poor.

"Trusty has done really well in Europe but domestically there are some games where you are questioning him as well. I know Brendan Rodgers has spoken about having that left footer on the left hand side but there was so many. Maeda has been outstanding but today, for whatever reason, it just didn't happen for him."

James McFadden

"For St Johnstone, it can't just be a one-off victory against Celtic. They'll hope they can use that. We spoke before the game about how hard it would have been for St Johnstone fans and players watching the scores come in yesterday.

"Those teams that won yesterday would have been sitting watching the game today thinking Celtic will win and the'd have a bit of a cushion. And St Johnstone have managed to upset that and it was well deserved, you have to say."