Ange Postecoglou

Let's not kid ourselves, Ange was plan B, because Eddie Howe wanted lots of money, both for himself, and in the transfer budget. Ange couldn't believe the Celtic board wanted him. Luckily for us, he overshot the expectations of most media. A cheap backup was supposed to fail. Instead, he recovered the title in one season.

 

But what a cracking plan B...in fact, it's turned out better than plan A!

 

Yes. However, it's telling that Deila, Rodgers, Howe and Postecoglou all stick to modern, offensive football that favors technical prowess, and don't like pragmatism. The board have read the pulse of the fans, and do try to deliver managers that play "the Celtic way". I guess there'd have been riots if Steve Clarke had been brought instead of Rodgers?

 

It's Kyogo , no wait it's CCV, no hang it's Jota, no it's Hatate. Yes definetly Hatate, oh for * sake Greg you're not making this easy.

With apologies to about 10 others I could have mentioned.

 

ANGE POSTECOGLOU isn't letting up anytime soon as he looks to keep his side in tip top condition during the World Cup shutdown.

The Hoops are set to jet off to Portugal seven days after their Sydney Super Cup appearance in late November, where they are already due to face off against Sydney FC and Premier League side Everton.

And they have now moved to line up a friendly for their training camp that's due to take place in the Algarve, according to reports in France.

Postecoglou's men look set to take on French top flight side Stade Rennais on 9th December, the same day as two of the World Cup Quarter Finals are due to be played.

Postecoglou had previously revealed the plans to head to the Algarve for a week long camp as he looks to prepare his side for what is set to be a congested second half of the season as a result of the winter World Cup.

The Aussie boss admitted that he'll only manage to catch a glimpse of the tournament as a result of the hectic schedule.

He told the said: "It’s probably the only time I’ll have (after the Sydney Super Cup matches) within the next sort of period to get down to Melbourne and visit friends.

“I’ve got about another week off after those games. So, I’m gonna go down to Melbourne and just catch up with people and watch the games on the telly.

“And then we’ll head back, cause we’ll go back straight after that and go into camp in Portugal, and get ready for the second half of the year.

"With the World Cup being smack bang in the middle, it means the programme either side of it is super congested."

 

Defiant Ange Postecoglou insists there is no glass ceiling for his Celtic side in Europe.

The Australian takes on Shakhtar Donetsk in Glasgow on Tuesday night looking to chalk up a first Group F win - a result which would then fire Scotland’s champions into contention for a place in the knock-out stages of the Europa League. And Postecoglou insists the sky could be the limit for his players if they can extend their European campaign.

He said: “You talk about glass ceilings, well what are the chances of an Australian coach managing in the Champions League? I’ve broken through so many glass ceilings that I know that they don’t really exist - they only exist in your own ambitions - whether that is Europa League or Champions League.

“My thing is to say that if a football club of our size goes out there and plays football that everyone talks about, irrespective of the opposition, wouldn’t that be a great thing? A club like Celtic is playing the biggest clubs in the world and people are talking about how we are playing, I think there is something in that.

“With that, you obviously want success and you want to win games of football, but I think there is great merit in doing things that people don’t expect you to do. And why not for Scottish clubs? Why not for us? I see no reason why we can’t do it.”

And Postecoglou also shook off any suggestion that Celtic’s defence of the demotic title could be undermined by a heavy European schedule. He said: “I think we are coping all right now. We are backing up, playing every three or four days, and we have only lost one game in the league.

“And the rest of the games have been a very good level of performance. We have won our cup games. So I still think it is the better way to go. I don’t think there is an easier or more certain route. But what you do have to have is a strong squad. And we worked very hard in the off season to get a strong squad and I think that has certainly helped us.

“From a cohesion perspective, it is a little bit disruptive when I am making five or six changes a game. But it means we are competitive in every game - and we certainly want to be in Europe and competing in both cup competitions and the league.”

Postecoglou has added David Turnbull to his squad for tonight’s tie but will have to do without Carl Starfelt and Jota - both of whom should be back for Sunday’s top flight trip to Livingston. And he insists his players will go for the jugular as they attempt to climb off the bottom of their Champions League group.

He said: “It doesn’t because that’s what we try and do every game. We try to win. But we know tomorrow, if we want to stay in Europe, we need to get the three points.

“The beauty of it is we don’t have to change our approach – we try to do that in every game we play, home or away. Obviously, we haven’t been successful in that in this competition.

“But tomorrow’s another opportunity to test ourselves, to test our football against a good footballing team. Let’s see how we go.”






SUCCESS, to paraphrase the saying, is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. On paper, by any measure, it would be a stretch to describe Celtic’s single point from their opening four Champions League group matches as such.

Ange Postecoglou knows as much, and the Celtic manager’s own ambitions for his team wouldn’t allow him to argue otherwise. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it has been a failure either.

In taking a step back to look at the bigger picture, Postecoglou does find a measure of success in what his team have done so far at the top level of European football, and in how their uncompromising brand of football has stacked up.

Any fair assessment of Celtic’s performances so far in Group F would conclude that it has made them a competitive proposition for every team they have faced, even if a bafflingly low chance conversion rate and a propensity for being caught out at the back by the lightning transitions commonly found at this level haven’t given them a live chance of progression to the knockout stages.

In the context of this being their first foray back in this competition in five seasons, Europa League football after Christmas would surely be success. Only a win over Shakhtar Donetsk tonight at Celtic Park and at least a point in the Bernabeu on matchday six will give them any hope of achieving that.

But for Postecoglou, the real success lies in the longer term lessons, and what this campaign may do for his team the next time they have crack at the competition.

“I think it will only be a success if we stick on this path,” Postecoglou said. “If we qualify next year, and that’s our first job, but if we qualify again and continue down this road.

“It won’t be a success if we tear it all up and take a different approach because we feel that this way isn’t going to work.

“Somebody mentioned Bruges to me the other day, and just have a look at Bruges’s record in the Champions League, and how long it has taken them to get to that sweet spot.

“But if you are constantly there, and you are constantly knocking on the door, and you are taking a consistent approach, I really believe that for a club like ours there will come a year where it all comes together.

“Instead of hitting the post, the ball is going to go in. We’re going to score in the first minute and get the crowd behind us instead of missing those opportunities. It will all come together.

“But that will never happen, that sweet spot will never happen, if you get to where we are now, tear it all up and say it didn’t work because we didn’t win a game.

“If we take a different approach next year then that is where this year won’t be a success, so for me that is where measure of it lies.”

All that being said, Postecoglou isn’t satisfied that plaudits have far outweighed points so far in this group stage.

“I don’t wear that as a badge of honour,” he said. “I want to win games, I don’t like losing. I get as disappointed [as anyone].

“But I set us a certain task in this group, this campaign, to play a certain way. Now if I said that and what you guys saw, what I saw, was something different there would be cause for questioning our whole approach.

“But, we said we want to take the game to the opposition, we want to play attacking football, we want to create opportunities – and I think we’ve done that. We’ve fallen short in executing in that final third in all the games, including against Shakhtar in Poland.

“Now, there are fine margins in that. We’ve hit the post a number of times, we’ve missed some really good opportunities that you’d think we’d be able to take. So we have fallen short.

“But what I do take pride in is the fact that the players have been brave enough to go out there against the best opposition, not fear conceding goals against very good opposition and potentially have some heavy defeats. Take it to the opposition.

“I take strength from that in that if we improve, if we keep doing this…we’ve got to keep getting to this level, consistently qualifying and putting ourselves in the same position we’ve done this year of playing games and creating opportunities.

“I believe if we keep doing that over a number of years you’ll hit a sweet spot somewhere, which a club like ours has to. Where it all comes together and you get the success.”

That explains just why Postecoglou is keen to get as much European football under his team’s belt as possible this term, even if that is in the Europa League. Only by competing at such a level more regularly, he believes, will his players be able to overcome their apparent yips in front of goal that are absent on the domestic scene.

“More than anything there is a realisation that time and space diminishes the higher the level you go,” he said.

“I can talk about and prepare them for it and try and coach them and give them guidance but until you are out there…you know the chances come quicker, the space is smaller. But they are still there.

“In the vacuum of the chance itself our players have the technique to finish it off, but when it happens quicker, it needs an adjustment. The more you play at this level, providing the player adapts – and for some the level becomes beyond them, and you realise they are never going to get there – but from what I have seen from our guys…

“It is still young group, with every game I can see them embracing it. They are going to go out [on Tuesday night] knowing there is not going to be a lot of time, there is not going to be a lot of space. Chances will come quickly. And I think they are better prepared for it.

“But until you get that feeling that you have accomplished it, you are always going to be out there searching for those answers.”

What the experience certainly has given Celtic in the short term is another gear that Premiership opponents are finding hugely difficult to live with.

“I said to the players if we maintained our levels against Leipzig in terms of physically and tempo in the league, we will destroy teams,” Postecoglou said. “And that is what has happened since then.

“We could have come out of that Leipzig game and said we didn’t win, things aren’t great.

“But what it showed them is that if they play at this tempo in the local competition, in the championship, then we will blow teams away.”


















ANGE POSTECOGLOU is adamant there is NO glass ceiling for Celtic in Europe.

Celts’ hopes of a place in the Champions League knockout stages were ended with the home defeat to RB Leipzig — a third loss in four Group F ties.

It is a must-win against Shakhtar Donetsk to keep alive slim hopes of making a Europa League play-off.

But despite being rock-bottom in the section, boss Postecoglou’s Euro ambitions remain sky high.

Postecoglou — the first Aussie to be a head coach in the Champions League — said: “If we improve, if we keep doing this, we’ve got to keep getting to this level.

“I believe if we keep doing that over a number of years you will hit a sweet spot somewhere, which a club like ours has to.

“Where it all comes together and you get the success.

“In terms of the game model, how we want to play and tackle these games, I believe that this is the path we need to go down to be successful.

“Nothing I’ve seen so far in the Champions League has deterred me from that.

“I’ve done it at a World Cup with Australia and just about every other Fifa tournament you could mention I’ve been to.

“I’ve tested myself in foreign countries.

“That’s what you want to do. You want to test those theories because they are all theories until you go out there.

“But again, I have a real belief that it stacks up and it will stack up, both in the short term and the medium to long term.

“We could have gone through this group stage, maybe got a famous 1-0 victory against Real Madrid having had one shot on goal and they have hit the crossbar six times.

“I just wouldn’t have felt fulfilled with that. That’s not what I think is making a real impact. It’s just the way I am.

“I think it will only be a success if we stick on this path.

“It won’t be a success if we tear it all up and take a different approach because we feel that this way isn’t going to work.

“I really believe that, for a club like ours, there will come a year where it all comes together.”

Asked if he hoped that coaches back home in Australia would be inspired by his philosophy, Postecoglou — who bossed his country’s national team from 2013 to 2017 — added: “I hope all coaches are mate, not just in Australia.

“If I can have success coming from where I have come from by taking this approach, then hopefully it inspires others.

“You talk about glass ceilings. Well, what are the chances of an Australian coach managing in the Champions League?

“I’ve broken through so many and I know they don’t really exist. They only exist in your own ambitions, whether that is Europa League or Champions League.

“I think there is great merit in doing things that people don’t expect you to do and why not for Scottish clubs? Why not for us?

“What I believe is that if you consistently get there and keep banging on the door, at some point it will happen.”

 

A growing concern I've had about the big man is the blind spot he has for certain players.

Maeda offered nothing for weeks, never dropped. Kyogo can't hit the side of a barn, still somehow starts. You could argue correctly that those players fit into our side regardless, but what's the deal with Mooy?

He can't move, can't press, doesn't link up, he just walks and hits balls over the top. I don't know how he even gets five minutes let alone 30 most games. He doesn't fit into our side at all, the game noticeably drops off when he comes on.

 

A disappointing campaign, and he'll know it. Never gonna get as easy as group as we got, and we still finished 4th.

Domestically he's absolutely incredible, but Europe he hasn't been great. Still 100% behind him but to go out like that is disappointing.

 

He needs better players to implement his style

 

Difficult to argue with this tbh. Major blind spot.

 

Feel like we conceded the same goal several times. All for his style but need to be much smarter on turnovers. Hopefully he and players learn.

 

I just hope he stays to see us through the CL campaign next year.

Every time a manager in the EPL gets the sack I start to worry.

But win the league, a good January plus summer 2023 window. Learn from this campaign, and another few months under our belt playing his style, and I think (hope!) we can make a better mark in Europe.

 

Love Ange and I'm 100% behind him, but signing Aaron Mooy, ffs big man

 

Aye I've touched on this before. He, like a lot of managers has his blue eyed boys.

I felt at times he would unfairly drop Giakoumakis for Kyogo and most of us wouldn't bat an eyelid as we were happy either way and could always see his point of view for playing Kyogo.

But this season so far there is quite a significant gulf in quality between the two. Giakoumakis is far more deadly than Kyogo. He has to start 9 out of 10 games unless he's injured. He's the better striker.

 

I don't get his subs Haksa was our main threat don't get why he went off and I'd genuinely rather Ange whipped the boys out than see Mooy

 

Two things he must have learnt from Europe this season.

1. Not changing his playing style., if he doesn’t want to change it in certain games then he needs to.

We can’t keep playing like we have and get nothing again next season.

2. We simple don’t have the quality of player to work this system at this level.

No home wins, and two points in the group, imagine if that * never missed that sitter!. Again this wasn’t the worse of groups but we need to either change the system or get better quality of players.

I honestly can’t see us getting that quality in so for me I hope he tweeks something so we can compete a bit better next season.

 

Haksa was *, as was O'Riley. We're limited with our subs right now. Missing Calmac and Jota is huge. Proud that we continued to try and play our football. We need to remember we aren't a seasoned champions league team

 

Howe deal fell through because he wanted all of his backroom staff to join him and they couldn’t be convinced.

We’ve also since found out that Ange was on the radar of the club’s board for a while now.

 

Waiting nearly a year to play in Europe again isn't going to help us much.
It's a slippery slope going from a team who is progressing to a team who is simply failing in Europe, were still in the progression stage under ange but he absolutely needs to get it working next season.

 

His interviews after these losses never paint a good picture. Stares at his shoes, coughs and shrugs his shoulders. It feels like we've accepted our poor run in this campaign too readily, want to see a bit more fire from the players and manager on nights like this.