Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers says enjoying a significant lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership can take the edge off some of his team's performances.
The Parkhead side are within touching distance of securing their fourth consecutive league title, and currently sit 15 points clear of city rivals Rangers at the top of the table.
Rodgers believes having such a significant advantage can negatively impact how his team plays.
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Indeed, the 52-year-old thinks that was no more apparent than just over a fortnight ago when Celtic were beaten 1-0 by St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park, as he spoke to Neil Lennon after yesterday's semi-final victory over the Perth side.
"Sometimes the comfort, this is the thing I talked about, it's not nice," said Rodgers [Premier Sports].
"You want it, but you don't really as a manager because you miss the edge.
"That took the edge off a couple of our performances, like when we played St Johnstone a few weeks ago. But, last week against Kilmarnock, [we were] very, very good.
"The players were brilliant [vs St Johnstone on Sunday] and the concentration was very good."
Celtic booked their place in next month's Scottish Cup final with a 5-0 thumping of Simo Valakari's men at the weekend.
Callum McGregor, Daizen Maeda, Adam Idah, and Jota all got on the scoresheet in a resounding victory.
"He's just such a special player," Rodgers said of skipper McGregor post-match.
"I've had him in two spells now and managed him for so many games. He's a real tactical decision-maker in the game.
"He sets the tempo for the team. He's a coach on the pitch for me. He knows the patterns that we want and he identifies the moments when to step in.
"Because you're playing against man-to-man, there's little patterns that freeze you up to be going forward. And he's done it so many times for me, especially here at Hampden, where he gets such important goals. He gets the first one, creates the second one.
"Just a brilliant captain of this club. And, yes, he was so good today [Sunday]."
