Celtic have looked super fit under Brendan Rodgers so far this season.
Celtic defender Erik Sviatchenko has told The Glasgow Evening Times that he is at a loss to explain why the Hoops are a lot fitter now than they were back in April.
The Hoops beat Rangers 1-0 in a Scottish League Cup semi-final at Hampden Park on Sunday for their second Old Firm win this season.
Brendan Rodgers’s side previously beat the Gers 5-1 in a Premiership setting and, if not for goalkeeper Matt Gilks, then it would have been another big win for Celtic on Sunday.
The Bhoys dominated a relatively one-sided game in spite of the fact that they had five days less recovery period than Mark Warburton and co, having lost to Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League in midweek.
Under Ronny Deila, Celtic lost on penalties to Rangers in a Scottish Cup semi-final back in April, after falling behind twice. Sviatchenko scored that day, and the big Dane says it is difficult to pinpoint why he and his team-mates seem much fitter now.
“That is a difficult question [to answer why the fitness was lacking back in April]. I can’t answer why. I came in January and I did all I could and all the boys did all they could,” he told The GET.
“But sometimes there has to be a change before players can get back their A game. That happened and now everyone is playing their best.”
There seems to be two logical explanations: either Rodgers’s methods of coaching produce better results than Deila’s in terms of fitness, or perhaps it is because that Scottish Cup defeat came at the tail end of the season.
In order to compete with the likes of Manchester City and Barcelona in Europe, Rodgers also needs a fitter bunch of players and perhaps it is a combination of all three.
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