Ryan Christie has revealed that Brendan Rodgers urged the Celtic players to use the defeat against Rangers in the derby as a learning curve to come back stronger in the second half of the season.

Celtic suffered their first ever defeat in a Glasgow derby clash since the appointment of Rodgers in 2016 when they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at Ibrox, before the mid-season break in the Scottish Premiership.




The Bhoys were completely outplayed by the hosts as Ryan Jack’s first half strike proved to be the difference between the sides at the end of 90 minutes in Glasgow.

Despite allowing Rangers to bridge the gap at the summit of the league table, Celtic still have a game in hand over their rivals and could open up a three-point lead at the top, should they win it.
 


And Christie revealed that Rodgers urged the Celtic players to bounce back from the defeat by using the experience as a learning curve to come back stronger in the second half of the season.

“The manager said after the game it was the first time we’d been beaten by Rangers in his reign and we need to learn from it”, Christie was quoted as saying by the Herald.
 

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“It needs to be a learning curve.

"We’ll try and do just that and it has given us the hurt to get back after the break and really kick things on.”

The 23-year-old even went on to claim that he believes Celtic will respond positively after the break and admitted the winter training camp in Dubai helped them become more tactically astute.

“We’ll respond positively, I think. We have enough confidence in our camp that we are used to not listening to outside voices”, he continued.

“We know how good we can be and this trip helps the manager get tactical ideas across and, when we come back, we can really kick on.”

Christie, who spent last season on loan at Aberdeen, has been directly involved in 12 goals across all competitions for Celtic this term.