Former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan believes Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side are better than last season’s ‘Invincibles’ for two key reasons, citing the improvement of their rivals and having to contend with injuries to key players, reports BBC Sport.
Celtic won an historic treble in Rodgers’ first season at Parkhead – Scottish Premiership, Scottish FA Cup and Scottish League Cup.
The Hoops first lifted the Scottish League Cup after beating Aberdeen 3-0 in the final in November 2016 and won their sixth consecutive Scottish Premiership title after finishing with 106 points in 2016/17, 30 more than second-placed Aberdeen after 38 games.
Celtic followed up that achievement with a 2-1 win over Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final in May 2017. And not to rest on their laurels, the Bhoys retained their League Cup trophy a year later, beating Motherwell 2-0 in the final.
Rodgers’ men are currently top of the Scottish Premiership too, 13 points clear of Rangers after 33 games, and look set to win their seventh consecutive league crown. They face Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final this month, so back-to-back trebles is still achievable.
Strachan believes winning all three domestic trophies again would be even more impressive as the competition have all improved upon last year.
He said:
“It’s been harder for Celtic this year. Neil Lennon’s made Hibs a better side, Rangers are better this year and those two have made the league harder.
“Obviously, you only need to look at Hearts too when they beat Celtic 4-0 under Craig Levein, so the standard of the teams have made life a bit harder for Celtic and have pushed them a bit more.
“They had so many players at top form last year, but now you look at the big fella up front, (Moussa)Dembele, and (Leigh) Griff (iths) – they’ve both been injured at times this season.
“So, putting that all together, it would be a fantastic achievement if Celtic get the treble again as they’ve definitely been put under more pressure this year.”