Paul McGowan believes that Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic are unrecognisable from last season’s stuttering champions.
Ronny Deila preached about pace but under Rodgers Celtic are delivering through the wide areas with midfielders piling into the penalty box to take advantage of the chances being created.
Saturday’s 1-0 win at Dundee was far from a vintage display from the hoops but the possession stats were overwhelming with Scott Brown popping up with the match-winner while other bigger names faltered.
With a four point lead after seven matches and a game in hand over Aberdeen it looks like being a long hard season for any title challenger with McGowan in no doubt about the gulf between Celtic and the rest.
“There’s a massive difference in Celtic this season,” the Dundee midfielder admitted. “Everybody could see last week against Man City how good a team they are.
“We should have beaten them twice last season and I don’t think anybody could have argued with that.
“You can see that, under their new manager, they’re the best team in the country by far. Nobody can argue with that. The pace they’ve got on the counter- attack leaves teams vulnerable.
“The only thing that can stop them is the Champions League or the Europa League if they get into that.
“Aberdeen are a great sidebut in my opinion Celtic are on a different level. You can tell the confidence is oozing through them. Brendan Rodgers has given their club such a lift.”
Celtic’s next domestic match is at home to Motherwell on October 15 with Rodgers’ side beating the Lanarkshire side 5-0 earlier in the season in the Betfred Cup.
While Celtic were winning 1-0 at Dundee all three of their Champions League Group C opponents were losing on their return to domestic action following Matchday Two..