Ange Postecoglou is firm on Celtic's next four matches and fires warning to rest of league

Celtic manager Ange Postecolgou maintains there will be no easing up in the club’s final four league fixtures despite the title having been sewn up at the weekend.

With the treble now going on the line in Scottish Cup final against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on June 3, the intervening three weeks could have allowed him both to give some pivotal performers rest time before the decider and game minutes to fringe performers. However, ahead of facing Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday, the Australian petitioned any deviation from the norm would go against the grain when the optimum is sought from every outing, and send out mixed messages to his players.

“We want to win, mate. I’m going to put teams out to win. That’s it,” Postecoglou said. “And the guys respect that, that’s what they want. They don’t want to be given anything; they want to earn everything they get. If they play they will play because they have earned it. If I make decisions that go away from that there will be other guys asking questions as to why they’re not playing.

“[When it comes to continuing to go full pelt in the remaining league fixtures] I don’t think that’s in my control: the players will do that themselves. I know they will come in on Tuesday/Wednesday and I know they are going to train like they have all year. We will tackle these four games the way we have tackled everything else. We’ve a cup final to prepare for and the best way to prepare for that is to be in really good form. I'm sure they all want to play in the cup final and they are only going to play if they are in good form and taking their opportunities. We won’t change our approach.

Ange Postecoglou is constantly striving for glory at Celtic.

“I think the last four or five weeks you can feel the lads have kind of tightened up in the way we are playing, knowing what’s at stake. We haven’t been as free-flowing as we were earlier in the year, which is understandable. And it has felt like a long year because of the Champions League and the World Cup break. But I’m in no doubt that in the next training session they will be out there working as hard as always.”