Celtic midfielder Benjamin Nygren conceded that the level of performance from himself and his teammates must improve in the final half of this season.
The Swede scored the only goal in a narrow 1-0 win away to Falkirk, bringing him up to ten for in the league campaign so far, only behind Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland.
And the 24-year-old is aware of the importance of getting positive results at this time of year.
He said: “We said in the dressing room before that we have to almost win every game now.
“In the end, it’s about getting the three points. If you play a great game, you still get three points. Today we didn’t play our best game but we still got the three points and that’s the most important thing.”
Falkirk had a series of chances in a game in which the home side dominated spells of. Nygren was quick to give John McGlynn’s side credit where it was due, but also feels Celtic must look inwards.
“For sure, I can give Falkirk some credit, they played a good game, but I still think we should do a better performance.
“But we didn’t, and we still ran a lot of metres and did pretty good defensively.
“We all know we have to put in stronger performances to win football games, today was not good enough.
“We cannot continue with performances like this, but today we got the win and we are pleased with that.”
Nygren is averaging a goal less than every three games after converting his twelfth Celtic goal in 33 appearances, but the summer recruit insists that the team performing well is his priority.
“I always want to do good individually, but it’s a team sport so the most important thing is for us to win the league, and be first in the league and we are not at the moment.
“But you need to score goals to win games and I’ve always been a player that from a deeper position that is creating chances, and scoring goals and making assists in the final third and I want to continue.”
Celtic are now six points behind leaders Hearts after they also won tonight, but Nygren believes that this Celtic squad can turn their fortunes around.
“We have the team right now to turn it around. In a massive club like Celtic, you always need competition [amongst the players].
“We still play both Hearts and Rangers again so it’s still in our hands and we will do everything to turn it around.”
Celtic travel to Rugby Park on Sunday afternoon to take on non-league Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup, before a week which sees them travel to Bologna in their penultimate Europa League league phase match on Thursday, and then to league leaders Hearts in a mouth-watering clash on Sunday.
