Celtic are under pressure going into game against Rangers at Ibrox, insists Brendan Rodgers

Celtic head to Ibrox on Saturday at lunchtime with the league title well in the bag. With an emphatic win over Rangers in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final last weekend, there is little for Pedro Caixinha’s side to play for other than pride.

And while Rodgers believes that Rangers will be bristling at the manner in which they were brushed aside at Hampden, he has insisted that Celtic too still feel as though they can kick on to a higher level.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: My Celtic players want success more than they want a holiday​

“You can’t say you have made the Scottish Cup Final with a great performance and now this doesn’t matter,” said Rodgers. “Every game matters and in particular a Celtic v Rangers game.

“But also I prefer the players to have pressure because if you want to succeed and want to be winning things and be at the very highest level you can be in your performance you have to feel the pressure.

“What is important is how you cope with it. Our players, through the habits we are creating, through education, through training, are getting better and they bring these confident habits into games. In this type of game you have to deal with pressure, but it is always there.

“If you want to be successful you can’t get away from it. What you have to do as a coach and as a manager is regulate the pressure, re-direct the pressure so it doesn’t affect your flow.

“But you can’t be in a club where there are 60,000 supporters and have the demands of a club like Celtic but not have pressures.”

Rodgers will have the “most influential player in Scotland” available to him this weekend, with Scott Brown clear to lead the team out at Ibrox.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: My Celtic players want success more than they want a holiday​

The Celtic captain was the man-of-the-match last weekend at the national stadium and Rodgers will reap the benefits of the appeal which saw his red-card in Dingwall rescinded to a yellow.

That will mean that Brown will play against Rangers before serving a two-game suspension against St Johnstone and Aberdeen, games where he was expected to be offered the opportunity for a break in any case.

“There is no doubt that Scott Brown is the most influential player in Scotland, there are no bones about that,” said Rodgers. “I have been hugely impressed by him, how he has performed. We have had a few games without him this year and the team has done well. But let’s not get away from it, you saw how he performed last weekend.

“He was tactically brilliant, how he operated in the spaces and filled gaps. He pressed the game. As I’ve said before, I came up here and people have talked about his passing ability. “He made two disguised passes through the eye of a needle and you don’t do that unless you have top quality. So he is a player of course you miss but it is a chance for someone else to come in and play and show what they can do.”

Rodgers has previously insisted that there are a number of tackles this season on Celtic players that have drawn yellow cards which could well have been upgraded to red on reflection, with the challenges on Kieran Tierney and Scott Sinclair brought to the fore.

Whether Andy Halliday’s tackle on Patrick Roberts in the opening stages of the game last weekend was used as part of Brown’s defence is unknown, but Rodgers was unequivocal in declaring that the offence called for dismissal.

"I think he was very, very lucky,” said the Celtic manager. “I think thankfully for [Patrick] he saw it coming out of the corner of his eye.

"If he's planted then it's a broken leg. At that speed going in, that was reckless. It wasn't a good challenge at all and I think everyone saw that," he said.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: My Celtic players want success more than they want a holiday​

"If there's a bad tackle within ten seconds because someone can't control their emotion then whether it's ten seconds or 85 minutes doesn't matter if it's a reckless challenge, dangerous challenge or violent conduct."

Roberts himself might not be there for the final next month, with the player at the heart of a club v country wrangle. The winger is due to feature as part of Paul Simpson’s England under-20 side at the under-20 World Cup finals in South Korea which kick off a week before the Scottish Cup final.

Rodgers was coy on what will transpire but did divulge that Manchester City, the player’s parent club, could also have an input on where he goes this summer.

“We spoke on it,” said Rodgers. “They have to name the squad by May. I think between Manchester City, ourselves and England we’ll find the solution for him.

“The kid’s playing, he loves it here, of course but at the same time I respect he’s been involved in a campaign with England. He’s happy either way, He loves being here, he wants to be here but he’s not our player. We have to speak on it.”

The Hoops boss seems certain to be without Moussa Dembele for the final too, although Rodgers has revealed that he has already started his rehabilitation from his hamstring injury.

“We’re just going to assess that over the next two or three weeks and see how he is,” said Rodgers. “He was on the bike cycling today. It’s a hamstring strain and some players come back quicker than others.

“We’ll see how it goes. It would only ever be calculated. It would have to work for us all.

“Of course if we thought there was a huge risk in it then of course you are only talking six or seven weeks before the first qualifier. So we’ll assess it and always make the right judgement for the player.”