‘Tricky’: Dejected Craig Levein explains why he’s glad he doesn’t face ‘fantastic’ Celtic every week

Celtic’s 3-1 win over St Johnstone puts the pressure back on Rangers at the top of the table this afternoon.

Brendan Rodgers‘ side looked back to their best as they delivered a brilliant all-round performance that the Celtic fans have not seen for quite some time this season.

Their constant pressure at closing down the St Johnstone players and their attacking intent was reminiscent of the kind of football we witnessed under Ange Postecoglou.

And it was this type of performance that left St Johnstone manager, Craig Levein, admitting that he’s happy that he doesn’t need to face the Parkhead side every week.

Levein said [Sky Sports], “I thought without the ball we were pretty good. Whenever we did win it back, particularly in the first half, we just turned it over nearly every time probably doubling the amount of attacks that Celtic had through our own inadequacy to keep possession of the ball.

“And that just made it harder for us defensively. And if you can get periods of control in the game then what that means is that your defenders are constantly under pressure in here.

“Attack after attack after attack with players who it’s not as simple as just defending crosses, there’s a lot of different passes that are played in that created opportunities for the Celtic players and you fall asleep for a second and you find yourself in trouble.”

“But this isn’t a game that’s going to define our season. We’ve got a lot of matches to play that will involve many different types of mental problems for us.

“This is a tricky place to come with a big pitch, a great surface and the movement Celtic have got is fantastic.

“And that was really tiring. For us. But that’s not what we’re facing every week.”

Watching the interview you could see the abject disappointment on Levein’s face in the tone of his voice as Celtic blew his St Johnstone team away.

As I said earlier, this was a performance that we have not seen from a Brendan Rodgers side for pretty much of the whole season.

Their attacking flair, particularly down the right flank with Nicolas Kuhn, was exceptional. The German winger is really starting to show the signs of the player that persuaded Rodgers to splash £3m on the German winger in January.

The only blot on Celtic’s performance was the fact that we conceded a poor goal that should have been dealt with much better by the back four.

But overall, as Levein admits, Celtic were fantastic yesterday and it’s just a pity that the international break has come when it has.

Because looking at what Brendan Rodgers’ side has delivered recently, barring the Hearts result, this team is growing more and more with confidence at the business end of the season and it has just made this title run-in all the more interesting for the Celtic fans.