BRENDAN RODGERS has urged Celtic to dig deep and fight their way through a grueling schedule of games.
UEFA’s change to the format of club competitions sees the group stages of the Champions League and Europa League extended until the end of January.
And, with increasing pressure on the domestic match calendar, the SPFL canceled the winter break in January.
Celtic now face a maximum of 24 games in 82 days if they advance in Europe and the Scottish Cup.
And despite Sunday’s 0-0 draw against Dundee United at Tannadice, Rodgers believes his team has the courage to achieve results when they are not at their best.
Brendan Rodgers has urged Celtic to prepare for busy festive matches.
Celtic drew 0-0 with Dundee United at Tannadice at the weekend
“There are no winter holidays this year and that’s what I loved about Scottish
football,” said the Celtic manager. ‘It used to be amazing to have that break.
“It’s still amazing here, but now we don’t have that rest period. March is the next break for the players and we just have to keep working.
“We need to stay focused and the lads have been brilliant in that regard.
“We would all love to play 90 minutes of high-intensity football in 60 games a day.
season. But that is not humanly possible. Sometimes you just have to get wins and more often than not, this team has done just that.
‘We couldn’t do it on Sunday but we got our point across and now we move on to Motherwell.
“It is a very busy period in the football calendar and we now have to recover quickly between games.”
With a match every three and a half days, the run begins with home games against Motherwell and St Johnstone before a trip to Ibrox for the New Year’s clash against Rangers.
The Motherwell match marks Celtic’s first home league game on Boxing Day since 2010.
‘I’m looking forward to being home on Boxing Day.
“It’s a great place to play and we want to send the fans home happy.”
‘It takes a lot of work to prepare for all the games, but we are used to it. This is life in a big club when you are a player and a coach. But look, we will enjoy it.”
Celtic await news on winger Nicolas Kuhn’s injury
Pending an update on injuries to top scorer Nicolas Kuhn, Rodgers expects Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty to return for the Motherwell game after they missed the tie at Tannadice with flu.
‘Cameron and Auston should be back. They did some work on the bike on Sunday and if all goes well they should be available.
“We have so many games and we will need everyone to be available.”
Evaluated for damage to his knee, a prolonged absence for Kuhn would mean more playing time for Hyun-jun Yang and Luis Palma after James Forrest was ruled out for six weeks.
Neither player took the opportunity to impress against Dundee United, with Rodgers warning: “You’ve got to come in and start working.”
“They have been out of the scene for a long time, but they train at a level and they come and do their best.
“They work every day to make them feel good physically and then you just look for that little bit of magic from one of them that can unlock a defense.” But that’s the possibility for these guys. “We have so many games and we will need everyone.”