Of the same from his own side and opponents

the Rangers manager showed a feistier side later as he looked back on last Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic. look to achieve the unprecedented feat of a domestic campaign without defeat.

Instead, he effectively suggested that the mindset and make-up of the two teams meant there was no reason to suspect the pattern need deviate much from the semi-final.

“When I have watched the games that have been [under Caixinha], they haven’t really been a high-pressing team. If you think of the Aberdeen game [Rangers won 3-0 at Pittodrie three weeks ago], they sat in [inviting pressure], and only in certain situations they would come and press it. If they feel the need to press and disrupt our organisation, it can also be dangerous because behind that then leaves a big space and we have speed to break into it.

“I am sure their supporters will demand that they be better, they will want to be better, but we want to be better. We want to improve, to be better than what we were in our performance level but they are always great games.”

Rodgers refuses to see the derby as a meaningless one with 33 points between the sides and the league long won. “You can’t say you have made the Scottish Cup final with a great performance and now this doesn’t matter. 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 be at the very highest level you can be in your performance you have to feel the pressure. “There’s external pressure because the supporters are demanding it; at half-time against St Mirren they were nagging on my dugout to tell me, so it is definitely there.”

Leigh Griffiths will lead the line for Celtic following Moussa Dembele’s hamstring injury at Hampden. There may now be some hope of the 20-year-old recovering for the Scottish Cup final in a month.

“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. If we thought there was a huge risk in it then, of course, you are only talking six or seven weeks before the first Champions League qualifier.” Brendan Rodgers demonstrated that not all Celtic cup wins over Rangers are equal yesterday when he slated his club’s under-17 side despite their triumph in the Glasgow Cup final.

The under-17s won the trophy with a 2-1 victory at Firhill last week but Rodgers said it was a “poor” game in which the standard was “awful”.

On Thursday Celtic’s under-20s defeated Rangers 3-0 in the final of the Scottish Youth Cup at Hampden. While Rodgers enthused about the performances of a number of his club’s youths at the National Stadium, declaring 6ft 7in keeper Conor Hazard to have a “big future”, comparing fullback Anthony Ralston to Danny Mcgrain and stating forward Mikey Johnston was a “real big talent at 17”, he was damning about what he had witnessed the previous week.

“The under-17s final was a poor game. In terms of Scottish football the standard was awful.

“There were some good players in both teams and the kids won, which was great, and there was two or three moments of quality. But the overall level of quality wasn’t good. I have seen some good kids up here and it’s a good level. But they would have to play better football than that.

“The under-20s the other night was a good game. They showed good tactical awareness and played at a good level, in terms of speed, organisation with their pressing, they got the ball back quickly and were fast getting forward. It was good. The progress will come with the 17s but we need to influence it even further down to eventually produce it at the top level. There’s a big difference if you want to produce players for Scotland that allows the national team to do well.

“I’m new here but it’s my job to help. We have brilliant coaches here at youth level with Chris [Mccart] overseeing it, Tam Mcintyre and Michael [O’halloran] with the 17s, their assistants, they have great enthusiasm and energy. But we’re trying to take a different path.”