Spiky Ange Postecoglou has questioned the "fascination" with Celtic and Rangers being being lumped together by their Scottish Premiership rivals.
Celtic will face off against Hearts at Tynescastle on Saturday as they look to keep their lead over Gio van Bronckhorst's men at the top of the table, and could temporarily extend the advantage to five points before Rangers kick-off later in the day. Ahead of the match Postecoglou took a veiled swipe at Robbie Neilson and his counterparts who pair the Glasgow giants together in pre and post match debrief.s
It was put to Postecoglou that Neilson had been very "bold in his teams strengths" but that it was difficult to compete with the "big two in Scotland.". The Celtic boss responded on Sky Sports News: "I guess every coach has got their own approach. I think in Scotland there is a real fascination in Scotland with putting the two teams together and not identify that they are two different types of teams, but if that's the way he wants to approach it that's up to him.
"Other managers approach it differently. I think from our perspective we make sure we treat every opponent the same way. It's always a tough game there. They have some good players there."
When it was put to him that Neilson was preaching a similar message to him in the Champions League about competing with the best, he said: "Again, I don't think that is the message I am preaching. I'm sort of saying we want to play a style of play regardless of who we are playing again. That is our identity. It's about talking ourselves up or talking ourselves down, it's about having an identity and believing in ourselves.
"That is where our beliefs lie. It's not about just talking about our targets, it's about having an identity and making it work."
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