Brendan Rodgers believes that back-to-back wins over Livingston and Dundee prove that Celtic have turned the corner.
Prior to those results the hoops had lost to Hearts and Kilmarnock with memories still fresh over a home draw with Motherwell and laboured win away to St Johnstone.
According to the manager he delivered the angriest team talk of his career at half time away to St Johnstone, following the Hearts home defeat Rodgers admitted that the result hadn’t surprised him.
All of those factors piled the pressure on while opening the door to a title challenge from across the city with the calendar ticking down towards the December 30 Glasgow Derby.
Against Livingston and Dundee Celtic have had more than 70% possession but created little around goal with the decisive second goal at Dens Park coming in the 82nd minute.
On the back of last season’s treble success fans have been concerned by the drop in standards, quality and entertainment but speaking to the Celtic website Rodgers said:
For me it was also about the performance levels which were more where I would want them to be. In the Livingston game we had lots of pressure, scored goals and had other chances.
But, importantly, we virtually didn’t give anything away and the same with Dundee. Dundee away on Boxing Day, it’s always going to be a challenging game, they’ve had a very, very good season, but we totally dominated the game.
We suffocated the pitch, created lots of opportunities, scored three really good goals. From a performance perspective the last two were much more where I want us to be.
There were no updates on injuries during the interview for Celtic TV with three issues still to be decided.
Reo Hatate and Liel Abada appear to be back in full training but the Israeli hasn’t played since the start of September while Hatate hasn’t played in the last two months.
On top of that, Cameron Carter-Vickers, the anchor in the centre of defence, was substituted early in the second half due to tightness in a hamstring.
Rodgers will host media conferences tomorrow to preview Saturday’s match but it is unlikely that any concrete news will emerge before the team lines are published at 11.15am on Saturday.
CLICK HERE for Harry Kewell update over Dens Park absence.
