Brendan Rodgers urges Celtic to ‘keep grinding away’ over busy festive period

Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic have to simply keep grinding away through a tough fixture schedule that will not be eased by a winter break this season.

Following the goalless draw against Dundee United at Tannadice on Sunday, which cut the Hoops lead at the top of the William Hill Premiership over Rangers to nine points, the Parkhead boss began preparing for the visit of Motherwell on Boxing Day.

Celtic captured the Premier Sports Cup with a penalty shootout win over Rangers at Hampden Park on December 15 and are still involved in the newly-expanded Champions League, with games against Young Boys and Aston Villa still to come, and the Scottish Cup still up for defending.

Rodgers, in his second spell at Celtic, said: “There is no winter break this year and that is what I loved about Scottish football

“It used to be amazing. It still is amazing but we don’t have a break .

“March is the next one and so we just need to keep grinding away.

“We need to keep our focus and the boys have been absolutely brilliant.

“We would all love to play 90 minutes of high-intensity football in 60 games a season. But that’s not humanly possible.

“Sometimes you just have to grind out the wins and more often than not, this team have done that.

“We didn’t manage to do it on Sunday but took our point and now we move on to Motherwell.

“It’s a busy period in the football calendar and we have to recover quickly between games now.

“We have to prepare well and do our analysis. A lot of work goes into getting ready for all the games but we are used to it now.

“That is life at a big club when you are a player and manager.

“But we will enjoy it. I am really looking forward to being at home on Boxing Day.

“It’s a great place for us to play and we want to send the supporters home happy with three points.”

Celtic will be playing at home on Boxing Day for the first time since a 2-0 win over St Johnstone in 2010.

Rodgers said: “It’s been a long time since Celtic played at home on Boxing Day and that’s great for the support and the players and the families.

“Normally we are away on Christmas Day, we still trained on Christmas Day but we didn’t need to be away at a hotel.

“It will be a similar game to United on Sunday.

“Motherwell will be tight, they will stay compact and it’s up to us to go and break them down. That’s the area we need to improve on from Sunday.”