SCOTT Brown, the Celtic captain, last night admitted the double treble winners intend to improve upon their fitness levels next season and pick up more points and trophies.
Steven Gerrard, the new Rangers manager, this week revealed that he thought Brown and his team mates were in better shape than the group of players he has just taken charge of last term.
Speaking as he launched an official DVD of their 2017/18 campaign highlights at Lennoxtown, the Scottish champions’ skipper agreed with that assessment.
But the 32-year-old, who has just returned to pre-season training after a four week break, stressed that Brendan Rodgers’s charges would be looking to improve upon their physical condition.
The midfielder was annoyed that Celtic drew seven and lost one of their 19 home games in the Ladbrokes Premiership and will be looking to improve on that in the months ahead.
Asked if he believed Celtic were fitter than their rivals last season, Brown said: “We felt that in most games. We score a lot more goals in the last 15/20 minutes of games because we have a lot more of the ball and we create more chances.
“We work harder than every other team that we play against and that is down to what we do out there on the training pitch with the fitness coaches and the manager.
“But the lads want to get fitter than what they were last season. We dropped a lot of sloppy points, especially at home in front of the fans. We have a new pitch and there are no excuses. The pitch will be fantastic all season and we can play proper football on it.
“We have got the belief, but we also have players who can create chances and score goals from nothing as well. I think that is where the belief starts. We know the fitness levels are up there.”
He added: “They’ve brought someone new in, but they’ve done that before and we’ve just kicked on and we’ll need to do that again now.
“We want more trophies. We want to be better, stronger break more records and go down in the history books and that comes down to hard work in the gym and on the training park.
“That intensity has been there already in what we’ve done so far. The manager’s talk to us proved that he knows what’s happening and he’s brought in a few new faces as well.
“We’ll push on and the main thing is our focus isn’t on ourselves. It’s not about Rangers, Hibs or Aberdeen – it’s about how we play and whether or not we turn up.”
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