The champions were unable to cope with the injury-enforced absences of captain Callum McGregor and centre-back Auston Trusty as – like at Ibrox in January -Rangers again hassled and harried them into a plethora of mistakes.
In fact, Barry Ferguson’s side could have scored more than the three they managed in what turned into a classic, five-goal epic.
“I think we need to show more personality to take the ball,” Rodgers told BBC Scotland.
“We made too many mistakes with it, we weren’t fluid enough moving it, and we allowed ourselves to be pressed. We didn’t play with that speed and quality.
“The performance level is something we need to look at. I don’t think we’ve been as good as I’d like us to be in these games of late.
“We get through and win the League Cup final, which was great, but again the performance wasn’t at our highest level. At Ibrox, we were well beaten and we lose today, so there’s a wee bit of thinking to be done.”
There will be no panic, of course. Celtic are well on their way to what would be a 13th Premiership title in 14 seasons and potentially a sixth treble in nine years.
With such standards having been set, Rodgers is demanding more from his team in the derbies in particular, with one remaining at Ibrox this season.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re one point ahead or 16 points ahead, you have to play with personality and we haven’t done that,” the Celtic manager added. “We need to be better than we were today.”
