Copyright dailyrecord
Kris Boyd said Brendan Rodgers was 'disrespectful' when he appeared to question Hearts' style of play after Derek McInnes' team thumped Celtic 3-1 at Tynecastle . It was a huge day for the Jambos who were head and shoulders above the defending champions and stretched their lead at the top of the table to eight points. Speaking after the game, Rodgers voiced his disappointment at his own team's performance but appeared to apportion some of the blame on Hearts' perceived direct style of play. In his post-match TV interview, sections of it nearly drowned out by the music and celebrations blaring from the Hearts dressing room, he noted they 'had to deal with a lot of direct balls.' But there was an instant takedown on the Sky Sports panel as a furious Boyd retorted: "I just found that so disrespectful. Hearts have bullied Celtic all over that pitch. "To question the way Derek McInnes' or Hearts' teams play, because Celtic didn't come here and dominate and win... They got bullied. Deal with it. "You're talking about fast, attacking football – that's not their DNA. Winning is Celtic's DNA. "To have a go at Derek McInnes for the way they played, it's so disrespectful for me." Host Eilidh Barbour then chimed in with some numbers for context, pointing out that Celtic played 13 fewer long balls than Hearts. That sparked an even more angry response from Boyd who said: "The way he spoke there was as if the goalkeeper was getting it in his hands and just launching it. Like the defenders are kicking it high in the air and it was like a game of rugby. It was absolutely nothing like that. "Celtic had an overload in the middle of the pitch. Hearts bypassed that and went long. It's not their fault that the Celtic defenders couldn't go and win headers. "Brendan Rodgers is an elite manager but you have to ask why is he not getting the best out of Callum McGregor, Arne Engels, Reo Hatate? Why does Kieran Tierney look absolutely miles off it? Tounekti's only scored one goal in nine games. Why has Rodgers not been able to get the best out of them? "There's been all this talk about the board, that's been a deflection. Today is another deflection. It's over to Rodgers to get his team back to playing football in a way that can win games." James McFadden agreed with that assessment as he chimed in: "They weren't. Rodgers is deflecting from his team's deficiencies. It's part of football , if you're not picking up the second balls, whether they're in the air or on the ground, and you're not ready to press and win the ball back, you're not going to win the game. "That for me was deflection from Rodgers to say 'that's what we faced today. They've been facing it forever."
