Ange Postecoglou

Folk need to remember that European football after Christmas is the high watermark of the modern era. Achieving that in itself is the best any manager since MON have managed. Therefore failing to do so is not a disaster

 

That’s true, but I’m just getting sick of the latter being used to excuse the former.

 

I know we’ve had our differences, but I’m pleasantly surprised to find that I agree totally with one of your posts.

Hands up: I’d have had you pegged for an Aussie apologist that would’ve wanted Ange to stick rigidly to his guns.

Fair play.

 

I think the CL campaign has been very disappointing if I’m honest. Results aside, I’m not sure I can say we deserved more on the balance of play, in any game.

I don’t believe we’ll have any real success at this level by simply playing exactly how we do in Scotland. You can maintain core principles, but we need to be tactically adaptable and much more savvy in how we operate. We play a very naive game.

 

Since Gordon Strachan. Im sure Rodgers managed it in the europa league.

 

Positives:

- Our young players got experience at this level trying to play in a positive way. Will have developed much more than just trying to deny the opposition space and surrendering possession
- Ange will hopefully analyse it and learn from it tactically. Our pressing and lack of balance on the turnover needs addressed
- It has highlighted where we truly are weak, which is central midfield. In Scotland spotting weakness is hard given the quality you are playing. Hopefully see a large turnover in that area in January/summer - McCarthy, Turnbull out, at least, and two much more mobile players in.

 

ANGE POSTECOGLOU has urged his Celtic players to come back stronger in next season’s Champions League, and ensure the experience they have gained in this season’s competition hasn’t been in vain.

Celtic’s hopes of securing European football into the New Year were extinguished on Tuesday night as they were held to a 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in Glasgow, with Postecoglou’s team having picked up just two points from their five group stage matches so far.

The Celtic manager has been encouraged though by the way his team have competed in each game they have gone into despite their meagre points tally, and says they will grow into being a force to be reckoned with at such a level the more his players are exposed to it.




It’s up to us to make sure we’re here again next year,” Postecoglou said. “That’s part of the process.

“You can’t go into this competition every five years and expect to make an impact.

“The first challenge for us is to become a Champions League football club and have this every year.


“What we’ve gone through this year, the way we have tested ourselves, there’s no doubt that this group of players will be much better for it.

“We’ve understood exactly from the first game what’s required and the levels needed.

“There’s an understanding of the fine lines between winning a game and not winning a game.

“I definitely think that this year will help us with the challenges. [We need to] qualify again next year and the year after, consistently be at this level and expose your players to this level of football.

“Again, this is a group who are very, very inexperienced at this level. Look back at where most of them were playing 12 months ago. A lot of them have got experience at other clubs. Us as a football club haven’t experienced Champions League for five years.

“We’ve got a list of players who this is their first time. It will be a missed opportunity if we don’t qualify next year.




What we’ve gained this year will help us become a better football club at this level.”

 

We absolutely deserved to win away at Shakhtar based on the balance of play.

 

we played well in all the games bar leipzig away ,we created chances and were competive throughout there was nothing wrong with the style of play we just came up a bit short. injuries to our key men played a part too .still think we need that next level striker (moussa on a pre contract in jan !) . the fine margins were our downfall and considering only 3 players have played at this level before its encouraging we were not outclassed in any of the games

 

Disagree.

They clearly played for a draw having won on match day one, and were reasonably comfortable just sitting back soaking up pressure.

 

Tbf once they got their goal they gassed badly we had most of the ball after that they hemmed themselves maybe them only making one sun had something to do with that


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I’d push the boat out for him tbh no sell on. Value if we do it but he would be that blue chip player we need look how crucial mudryk was for donetsk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sorry mate but that's mental. We had 5 or 6 unbelievable opportunities that we didn't take. It was a combination of luck and bad finishing that got Shakhtar a draw in Poland.

The game on Tuesday was far more even.

 

All if, buts and maybe...but if we had the likes of a Edouard on form, Dembele on form, those level of strikers.

I 100% believe we'd have won both games against Shakter, may have stolen a shock smash and grab point at home to Madrid and beat Leipzig at home.

Our finishing is costing points and it shows at the level of CL as we could have been sitting on 10 points this CL campaign going into final game with Madrid.

Obviously though it is not that easy as some will apply hard logic to these types of hypothetical and say some of our previous strikers may not have fit well with Ange style of play.

Either way I'm still happy in the knowledge that if we can rectify those deficiencies, deepen our pool of knowledge and experience within our scouting team and branch out more to search even harder for new talent.

We could very well create history with Ange

 

Reasonably comfortable? We absolutely battered them pretty much all second half and missed a few great opportunities in the process. It wasn’t like we created nothing.

 

Personally think you're way off their mate. We missed some unbelievable chances that night. Had we scored 3 or 4 goals in that game, no one would have said we didn't deserve it.

 

I'll give my opinion on where I feel we are in terms of our game in Europe and where I see us going forward.

I gave Ange a by last year for the European situation. I felt that, while we did ourselves no favors in some games, we did ok in what was quite a difficult group. Both Real Betis and Bayer Leverkusen were cracking sides, both finishing just one place outside their top 4. I'm pretty sure Betis lost it on the final day to Sevilla as well. Then, I really did feel that the win against Betis in the final game, the two wins against Ferencvaros showed that we were able to do some damage in Europe, albeit we were playing a nothing game against Betis in our final game. We also never got absolutely battered except once, where we lost to Leverkusen at Celtic Park 4-0. All the other games we lost were incredibly tight. Betis in Spain ended 4-3 but we had no Kyogo or GG. We had no Hatate or O'Riley. We had zero depth, basically. Then, we lost 3-2 in Germany and that was the hardest one to take. Bitton strolling about that game, playing like prime Makalele. He goes off injured and we fall apart. One of the best games I ever saw big Nir play. He was different class that day. However, while that game knocked us out of the Europa League, it showed me that we could go to places and compete. Then we had Bodo, Ange in my opinon makes a HUGE mistake. Trying to play Rogic and O'Riley in the same team and Bodo pass through our very limp press with ease and comfortably beat us. One of the most infuriating games I think we have played under the big man and one I feel he got team selection wrong. Knowing the league became sole priority, he rests a lot of the boys for the game in Norway.

Then we do what needs to be done. We win the league, get direct entry into the Champions League and get what many of us would consider, our best CL group in * years. We had the glamour tie with Real Madrid and then, what I felt were two very realistic ties where we could at least get a couple of wins. First game, what a game. Went toe to toe with the best team on the planet and for 60 minutes, we were matching them. Then, that first goal. Unbelievable skill and movement from them and they have the ball in the back of the net within about 5 passes outside their own box. Incredible to watch. However, after that game I think we all felt that we could play OUR style of football against clubs, and it could be successful for us. Second game, we play away to Shakhtar. Still don't know how we never won that match. Huge chances missed, dominated and battered them the second half. Again though, we played our style of football and we SHOULD have won. 3 or 4 players missed big chances that night. It wasn't the style of play that lost us that match, it was the chances we missed. Third game, away to RBL. They looked like a completely different team under Marco Rose. They were slicker and they do have that world class player in their team, Nkunku. He's unreal. However, we went toe to toe with them and we could have taken something from the game. Again, we had chances. Did we deserve anything out the game? Probably not. I think RBL definitely deserved their win in Germany, but the Joe Hart mistake cost us big time. Was it the style of play that lost us the match or individual errors/not taking our chances? Fourth game, home to Leipzig. Again, we miss loads of chances. We play well, we go toe to toe with them playing our football and I think we deserved something out of that match, I really do. Did we deserve to win? Maybe not but we deserved a point at least. It was very even, both sides had chances but they were far more clinical. Then Tuesday, which has been my most disappointing game of the group. We allowed them to have a lot more of the ball, our press was ragged at the best of times. However, we could have and should have won that game. Chances missed, AGAIN. Shakhtar were much better than the first leg but we were still the better team.

I feel as if a lot is being made about the style of play and Ange refusing to back down from playing his game. While he doesn't get a by from me this year, I wanted to see progress and I feel we seen that in the way we played the majority of games. On another day, we could be sitting in here typing about how had won a couple of games and taken a point in others. What needs to happen now is more investment in the scouting department to find players like Mudryk, Nkunku etc before they get to the level they're at. We know we can find some gems(and we have plenty of gems of our own right now) but we probably need to up the level of how much we spend.

Disappointing results and disappointing end to the European campaign this year BUT, we have seen progress on the pitch. Now time to focus purely on the domestic front and make sure we achieve champions league participation again. The experience will do the players the world of good. Let's go one better next year and get some wins on the board and prevail in Europe beyond Christmas in 2023.

 

Sorry mate, can't agree with any of that. The win on Match Day One would have had them up for anything - more-so a home tie against us. They wanted (expected?) 3 points. And I don't think they looked comfortable at all - we seriously harassed them for decent periods of that game.

 

The fact their game plan was to soak up pressure is irrelevant. We still deserved to win. And comfortably at that.

 

A well reasoned and balanced write up IMO. I agree that a lot of our results come done to fine margins and big moments in games that don't go our way. That's not to say that we were unlucky - like Ange said, we got what we deserved. It wasn't anybody's fault but our own that we didn't take our chances, whereas players like Mudryk did.

A positive take away for me is that to a large degree we showed that we can compete with higher calibre teams playing this style of football. There wasn't one game where we were completely outplayed or where we didn't at least give ourselves a chance of taking something from the match. Of course it has also shown that we have to improve in key areas, that the setup needs tweaking and that we have to be more resilient defensively, but the building blocks are there. I think back to some of our matches in Europe last season where we were so open that sides just played straight through us, but that was less of an issue this year with the tweaks Ange made. We still conceded too many goals on the break for sure, but we weren't giving up anywhere near the number of chances we did last year. We'll never completely eliminate that threat at this level playing the way we do, but if we can once again minimise the occurrences next year, it puts us in a better place.

I've mentioned it before but it bears repeating: any 'smaller' side who has had success at this level recently, clubs like Ajax and Brugge for instance, haven't just done it out of nowhere. It's taken several years of building and sticking to a certain style of football. Even a team like Bodo had been built over a period of several years. They had some new players last year, but they were all slotting into a well established system.