Ange Postecoglou has the rare treat of a full week on the training ground with his squad to enjoy.
When the Greek-Australian took charge last summer he had to juggle squad building with two matches a week as Celtic took part in domestic and European competition.
Between December 2 and 26 Celtic played eight matches with the schedule just as strenuous since a three week break came to an end on January 17.
Celtic have picked up 28 points out of 30 in the SPFL this year to move into top spot with eight matches left to play.
A repeat of that form will return the title to Celtic with Postecoglou ensuring that free midweeks are put to the best possible use.
Speaking to the Daily Record the Celtic boss said:
It’s not about days off, it’s just about freshening them a bit. The players will still be in at Lennoxtown but they will come in with a different mindset.
When you know there is a game coming up in midweek, you tend to just work on recovery. It’ll be great for the players to just train as normal as this is the first free midweek we’ve had all year.
It allows them to freshen up mentally instead of preparing for a game in the midweek. I will freshen up a few and I’ll also get the chance to put some real good physical work into others who need it.
The ones who haven’t had a lot of game time recently. It’ll be enormously beneficial for us to have two midweeks coming up. It’s eight days between Livingston and the cup game on Monday and then we don’t play again until the weekend.
That’s two good weeks of training before the international break and that is valuable time for us as coaches as we can actually do some work with the players.
After Monday’s Scottish Cup tie against Dundee United the hoops have just one more match, at home to Ross County on March 19 before they cross the city to Ibrox on April 3.
