Brendan Rodgers: Celtic manager says club leads Scottish Premiership due to consistency, not Rangers problems | Football news

Brendan Rodgers says Celtic control the Scottish Premiership title race because of their consistency, not because of Rangers’ problems.

The Hoops – who play Ross County on Saturday live on Sky Sports – are 15 points clear of their Old Firm rivals after a win over Dundee United and Rangers’ draw at Dundee.

Celtic have won 18 of their 21 league games this season, with their only defeat coming in a 3-0 defeat at Ibrox, and are on course to retain the title plus a potential domestic treble, having already won the League Cup.

However, despite Celtic’s domestic dominance, Rodgers insists complacency will not take hold in his group.

“I think we’re 15 points clear because we’ve been so consistent,” he said Sky Sports News. “There can be a lot of attention on other teams and Rangers, for example, who are so far behind.

“But then you can look at it and go, well, Celtic have actually consistently played very, very well and not slipped that much and just proved that consistency.

“When you have that resilience as a team and that mentality as a team, it can obviously give you an edge in the competition as such. But for us the focus is always on ourselves and Celtic and how we work and how we play and hopefully it continues to give you consistent results.

“I don’t think there will ever be complacency here. I think there’s always the challenge of people being too complacent and too happy with the way things can be, but not at the biggest clubs. You can never afford that. It’s something that we’ve shown consistently happens . We are always focused and ready for our next game.”

Rodgers calls for the reintroduction of winter break

Celtic could be without a host of attacking options in Dingwall on Saturday, with James Forrest and Luis Palma ruled out of the trip to the Highlands, while Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda are doubts with muscle injuries.

The game will be Celtic’s fourth in 10 days and Rodgers would support reintroducing the winter break “if it was ever possible”.

He added: “When I was here, we knew December was going to be a tough schedule, going through all that.

“Then you had your New Year’s game and only then you would have a few weeks to reset, refresh and then go again for the second part of the season.

“Having even more games in that period, now that we don’t have a break, is a real challenge. That cannot be denied.

“We will do everything we can to produce the best performances and results and we will focus on that as much as we can. However, this is a really tough schedule.

“You have to produce the best product you can, and that can be a challenge when you have so many setups.”