Brendan Rodgers and Greg Taylor have both played down any talk of “mental fatigue” in the Celtic camp ahead of this weekend’s match.
The Hoops face Livingston on Saturday, looking to get back to winning ways after the midweek Champions League disappointment against Feyenoord.
Earlier in the week, Livi boss David Martindale said that the Celtic players would be suffering mentally as well as physically, as they rock up at the Tony Macaroni Arena after the noise of De Kuip.
“There is a mental energy, mental fatigue,” Martindale said. “Not just the physical side of it after playing in Europe.”
But, speaking at separate points in the lead-up to the match, both Rodgers and Taylor have refuted talk of there being any mental fatigue after the midweek clash.
“The guys are now used to it,” Rodgers told The Herald. “A lot of those guys now have been playing the past couple of seasons in European football – that’s part of the gig here.
“That’s part of moving on quickly. You can’t dwell on the games. You have 24 hours when you can suffer but the strength is to get up and fight the next time and get going again quickly.
“So, there will be no mental fatigue. We’ll be ready. David’s a good man. I like him and I look forward to seeing him. We are only in September. It’s not April.”
Taylor feels the same way, also telling The Herald: “I wouldn’t say there is any mental fatigue. We’ve only just started this season and we’re eager to try and perform and keep on improving. We have another opportunity to do that on Saturday.
“The mantra and the focus has to be that the next game is the most important, no matter what competition it is.
“Livingston is that for us on Saturday, the Champions League has gone until the next one. We’ll be ready for Saturday.”
The Celtic management and squad are saying all of the right things in the lead-up to this one. Many of them will have experienced bad results at Livingston, so hopefully that is on their mind.
This is the first time the team has played two competitive matches in a week so far this season, so we should be fresh and ready to go.
Rodgers has the option to freshen up a few areas of the team with the likes of Hyunjun Yang, Paulo Bernardo and Odin Thiago Holm all keen to make an impression.
If our attitude is right and we play our football then we should come out on top.
In other news, what Brendan Rodgers told Celtic players in dressing room after defeat to Feyenoord
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