Ready to revive ‘Deila dome’ plan

“That’s the big advantage the Europeans have over us.

“Because you lose your coaching. You might go through three or four months where you lose that time, when it’s not about coaching, it’s about keeping the players warm.

“So you lose valuable minutes on the training field.

“If there’s a way to do that up here, it should be looked at, for sure.”

Any extra edge for Celtic would be bad news for other Scottish sides who are already struggling to cope with their relentless, high energy pressing game.

“If you look at the Manchester City game on Wednesday (the 3-3 draw in the Champions League) you will see we get off to fast starts but in the last 15-20 minutes, we are blocking, fighting and doing everything we can to get the result.

“So there’s a mental fitness in the players that’s growing all the time.

“And there’s a physical fitness in them.

“That’s a huge thing to have in your armoury, the ability to know that, when others are flagging, you can keep going. “And you have to keep demanding. “It would be easy at 3-1 or 4-1 against Kilmarnock just to sit off, but no, no, you have to keep going right to the very end, keep pushing.

“The supporters sitting in the stand, that’s what they want to see.

“You’re representing them, so every minute of your life on that field, you have to devote it to them and give everything.

“So physically we train to be like that and the players enjoy it.

“What I’ve always learned with really good players, top players, is that they enjoy working hard.”

Age, he insists, is no barrier, with Kolo Toure praised for playing a key role against Manchester City, his former club.

“If you look across the team there is a real air of excitement because of the youthfulness of the group,” Rodgers added.

“It is always good to have a blend of experienced players who have been there before and then the enthusiasm of youth that have no fear and would run through a barbed wire fence for you.

“And I have to say that as a group they have embraced the challenge which has been set them.”