Rodgers dismisses Old Firm 'dead rubber' suggestion

Brendan Rodgers insists Thursday's Old Firm derby is no "dead rubber" despite Celtic's 14-point lead over city rivals Rangers in the Scottish Premiership title race.

The Northern Irishman has suffered only one defeat in 20 derbies over two spells with the Glasgow club, winning 16 of them, but knows managers are judged on Old Firm results.

And he insisted that his players will not "soften up" in their approach at Ibrox despite many suggesting they are already guaranteed to retain the league title.

"There's always pressure of some sort. I hear the talk about a 'dead rubber'," he said. "There is never a Rangers-Celtic game that's a dead rubber - not in my book.

"It is where you are judged at this level, working at Celtic or Rangers - I think you are judged in these games. I saw Giovanni van Bronckhorst get to a European final and then lose his job not long after because he was losing to Celtic."

Rodgers is keen to improve on the performance in the recent Premier Sports Cup final, when Celtic won but Rangers ran them close until losing on penalties after a 3-3 draw at Hampden.

"That is a huge measure here of any manager and I'm fully aware of that, I always have been," he said of Old Firm derbies. "Winning against your greatest rivals is very important and the progress of your club is important.

"You want to win every game and you want to perform at the very best level. For me, I love the occasion, I love the game - it's an iconic game and one that I always want to win."

"I have got players who know what it means in this game, and they know what it takes to win, and they like I are committed to delivering that."

Celtic captain Callum McGregor says they hope to learn from that close-run Hampden final.

"We'll have another look at the game and see where we can be better, areas we can exploit and try and cause them problems," he said.

"The important thing in cup finals is to come through it and win then you can tidy up the little details when you arrive into the next game. I think we've done that since that game.

"We want to perform better than we did in the cup final, impose ourselves on the game and perform better than we did in the final.

"It's a derby game, you want to win, so regardless of where you are in the table, everybody wants to win."