Ange Postecoglou: There's no sign of 'job done' mentality in Celtic squad

Ange Postecoglou insists there’s no feeling in the Celtic squad that the title has been won after beating Rangers to open a six-point gap at the top of the league.

Sunday’s win at Ibrox put Celtic firmly in the driving seat to win the Premiership with six games to go, not only holding a significant points advantage but also with a superior goal difference to their city rivals.

The team will now look to take another step forward on Saturday when they face St Johnstone at home and Postecoglou says his players are fully focused on the job at hand and said that anyone who thinks the title has been won will find themselves out of the first team picture.

“If subliminally they are feeling that way then they won’t play on Saturday because it’ll show in training,” the Celtic manager said. “I’ve got 24 or 25 guys who are desperate to play, desperate to be involved and contribute.

“You can’t roll up to this training and be thinking about anything else other than getting the job done, irrespective of who you are. The players themselves won’t allow it, they are pushing their limits every day. I’ve consistently said that we’ll play our best football at this time of the year irrespective of who we’re up against and that’s our aim and ambition.

“If any of that sort of thinking creeps in with anybody, they’ll get left behind. It’ll stand out in this environment. At this point in time, nobody is showing any signs of that.”

Postecoglou has a full squad to choose from, with the exception of James Forrest, and explained that he decided to be cautious and leave Kyogo Furuhashi out of the derby last weekend despite the talismanic forward being back in full training. The Australian said it was “100%” that Furuhashi will be back in the squad on Saturday.

In the last game before the league split, Celtic are taking off a St Johnstone side that are desperate for points to get clear of relegation fears and Postecoglou is expecting a difficult challenge.

“St Johnstone are in good form,” he said. “Every game is a challenge.

“But you can’t discount the fact that we’re in good form so that is where our focus lies. We make sure we give the best of ourselves, play our football, set the tempo.

“We need to be strong. They’re fighting for their lives, we’re fighting for something else. There’s always a fight out there.

“What we need to keep doing is every weekend make sure we’re putting our best foot forward, as we’ve done.”