Virgil van Dijk knows some people in Holland feel he has it too easy as a Celtic defender - but the Dutchman insists there has been nothing simple about their record-breaking run.

Van Dijk helped Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster keep a club-record 11th consecutive clean sheet during Sunday's 1-0 win over St Mirren, which stretched the champions' lead at the top of the Premiership to 21 points following 24 unbeaten games this season.

When asked if people in his homeland viewed Scottish football as too easy for him, the 22-year-old said: "Some of them, yes, but you still have to do it and it's not easy to be unbeaten for so many games and break clean-sheet records. So they have a lot of respect for that as well."

The former Holland Under-21 defender believes Forster's displays are worthy of the England No.1 spot.

"I think he's a phenomenal goalkeeper and maybe one of the best in the world," Van Dijk said.

"If I was the coach of England I would put Frase as number one."

Celtic take a break from chasing league records when they host Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup fifth round on Saturday and Van Dijk is chasing the first silverware of his career.

"I think maybe the quarter-final was the highest (I got in Holland)," he said. "To win prizes is a very big thing for me. The last time I won prizes was when I was a young kid.

"It's going to be a tough game. The games we played against Aberdeen already this season were hard games."