Brendan Rodgers put Celtic’s goalless draw against Dundee United into season-long context as the Hoops will celebrate Christmas Day nine points ahead of Rangers at the top of the William Hill Premiership.
In his first game at Tannadice as Celtic boss, the Northern Irishman watched his much-changed side dominate possession for the vast majority of the game but they could not find a way past a resolute United defence.
It was the first points dropped by the Premier Sports Cup winners since a 2-2 draw against Aberdeen in October but Rodgers was broadly understanding as he turned his attention to the home game against Motherwell.
“The expectation on ourselves is to win every game,” said the Celtic boss, who revealed winger Nicolas Kuhn is a doubt for the game against Motherwell on Boxing Day at Parkhead after missing the trip to Tannadice with a knee issue.
“The players have been absolutely brilliant up until this point, I can’t complain.
“We just have to do better in the final third but also give credit to Dundee United. They were resolute and got blocks in.
“But I felt that it was more us – not getting on the end of crosses and not hitting the target.
“However, the players have been fantastic, playing under big expectation to win every game.
“This has been constant for them in the last few weeks and they have played to a really good level.
“Now we have two home games close together and we will look to take maximum points from them.
“You are always disappointed when you draw a game that you should win.”
Rodgers rang the changes following the exhausting Premier Sports Cup final win over Rangers last weekend and in came Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, Liam Scales, Luke McCowan and Yang Hyun-jun.
Paulo Bernardo was among the substitutes but there was no sign of Kuhn, injured Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers or Auston Trusty, the latter two declared ill by the Celtic boss before the game.
The Northern Irishman said: “Cameron and Auston were ill.
“Ali should be back for Thursday and we just wanted to give him recovery time.
“He did really well to play in the final so we just wanted to rest him.
“Nicolas was tentative with his knee and we didn’t want to risk that.
“I don’t know (how long Kuhn will be out).
“He felt a problem with his knee and then he felt a twinge on Saturday. We will find out more on Monday
“He’d been running and moving OK but he felt a slight twinge when he passed the ball and we are hoping he will be OK for Thursday.”
United boss Jim Goodwin was pleased with the way his side responded to last week’s 4-3 defeat at Motherwell.
He said: “I mentioned that after the game to the players.
“To be able to go from what we showed against Motherwell in terms of the poor defensive organisation, the poor decision, then to looking like a really good defensive unit again was brilliant.
“But, look, the Motherwell game, we put it down to a bad day at the office.
“Every mistake we made, we felt that we got punished for. Today. Of course, we would like to offer a bit more in terms of an attacking sense, but, as I said, you’ve got to respect the opposition.
“They’re very, very good at what they do. And we wanted to try and hit them on the counter attack.
“I thought we maybe got four or five half-decent breakaways, but just weren’t able to capitalise on it.
“But I think if you’d have offered most Dundee United supporters a clean sheet and a point before the game, I think pretty much every one would have taken that.”
