Ange Postecoglou

Everything Ange Postecoglou had to say to club television in the immediate aftermath of Celtic's 4-0 SPFL Premiership win over Aberdeen at Parkhead...

The boys were on it from the start today - what impressed you the most of that performance?

Yeah, it was good. I thought first half was outstanding, I thought our football was really exciting. Good quality, working hard, but really exciting as well. We got a couple of goals but could've had a couple more quite easily. Second half was a bit of a grind for 15-20 but then we finished strong again and the guys coming on made a big impact. So, yeah, pleased.

There was an atmosphere around the stadium today and the boys really reacted to that and no one more so than Callum McGregor when he drove in the first goal...

We had a chat about making sure we got a strong start today. I thought that was going to be important because obviously Aberdeen are going through a bit of a transitional stage. You've got some players there who haven't experienced playing against us and I thought if we start really strong we'd put them on the back foot. The skipper set us off in that first minute and we didn't look back after.

Reo Hatate's performances are reaching another level at the moment...

Yeah, well he has to. We want him to. He wants to. So, you know, it's not about resting on your laurels. We already know he's a good footballer. I think he's proven that but, like all the rest, we want him to be better. He wants to be better and certainly at the moment he's just pushing himself to new levels. He's a very determined young man. He's just so focused on being the best footballer he can be and you see that every day and he gets the rewards for it.




Again, big contributions coming from the bench. How pleased are you that everyone who steps on the pitch appears to play every minute as if it's their last?

It's been important to us. We've been strong for a long time and that's the key to it. Even if we do have a bit of a flat spot, there are people coming on the corner, raise the levels again. They all want to play their part, they all want to contribute. A contribution in the last 10 minutes is just as important as the first 80 and that's the way they've embraced it. I'm sure the other ones who aren't starting want to play but they're also seeing an opportunity to play because now there are guys who aren't even getting any minutes at the moment who deserve to get some minutes. But if we want to be the team we want to be and attack it on all fronts in terms of the competitions we need a strong squad and that's what we've got.

Everyone will be vying for the police and next week's Scottish League Cup final. It's an important week - how do you maintain that kind of composure during the noise?

You just embrace it - that's why you want to be in cup finals. It's not just another week, it's not just another normal build-up and that's the beauty of it. It's why you work so hard to get to these big games. It's a game of massive consequence in terms of there being a trophy on the line. We'll enjoy the week but it won't deter us from knowing what's important and what's important is that we prepare ourselves as we always do to be the best we can be on the day.

 

I don't see him * about on cup final day.

He's gonna be looking to take scalps...he won't ever show it on camera or during pressers but I fully expect he will be wanting to shut Beale up and ramping up the instructions to the players that no one is left alive.

He will be demanding complete ruthlessness. Then with a wee wry smile hopefully be lifting that trophy and pushing all the praise to the players

* * them Ange.

 

They are trying to make it would like both managers have beef with each other to create headlines.

Ange is above Beale and the media. He's not getting dragged down to their level.

 

that's just a racket

 

He's been an unreal appointment. The amount of goals we've scored under his tenure is insane...

 

Hart
Ralston CCV Starfelt Taylor
McGregor
Haksabanovic Hatate
Abada Kyogo Jota

I'd like to see that ream playing a game, harsh on Mooy as he'd fit in as well but the dribbling and creativity of Haksabanovic in there with Ralston overlapping Abada.

Think that could destroy somebody especially having Abada and Kyogo starting together again giving you that movement around the box for Ralston and Jota to deliver to with Haksabanovic and Hatate pulling the strings in the middle.

 

He's the best manager we'll ever see I think, tactics are perfect and everyone knows what we do and yet nobody can deal with it at all.

When he leaves it will be like Van Dijk or Larsson leaving where you know you'll likely never see a guy in their role close to that again.

Think we move the ball too fast, keep the ball in play too much, restart play too quick, push teams too far back and have the right type of players in each position that there nothing teams can do against us domestically. Don't think we've ever dominated domestic teams as easy just due to our style of play.

The possession starts are * unthinkable, averaging over 72% possession.

 

If he can translate that into European games more often, then it'll be hard to argue with that statement.

 

Been a brilliant appointment obviously. Goes without saying at this stage.

Needs to do something in Europe to be seen as one of our best though.

 

Hopefully we see it next season. We forget he's just thrown a team together and probably perfecting what he wants.

The League stuff is shocking though, the domination. Looking at about 20 other Leagues England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Belgium, Brazil etc the closest a team has to as much possession as us is Ajax at 67.7% we're 72.2%, nearly 5% more than the next best out of about 400-500 teams. I'd bet nobody in history has ever averaged 70% possession over a League season before, even us last season got 69.8% best Guardiola's Man City have had in all his years there is 68.1% a few season ago.

We're also on course to score the 2nd most goals ever scored in a League season in Scotland in his 2nd season after rebuilding a whole squad.

Mad for a manager this quick to be creating results like that.

 

Totally get that lad. I'm expecting to be entertained next year in the CL because I think we're gonna see the best of Ange's team. I had put the Europa run down to a learning curve, and to an extent this year's CL campaign - Ange is constantly learning still as a manager and he's had two season's now in 3 different European leagues. I'm positive he'll have taken every negative from them and will "perfect" his approach next season.

 

Ange at Celtic

Season one - squad consolidation and establish Ange - ball.
Season two - squad transformation and perfecting Ange-ball.
Season three - team development and establishment as a European club in the CL.

More money for Celtic each successive year.

 

Ange will make history at Celtic.

No doubt in my mind

 

Ange Postecoglou

He is surely making Japanese football fans to watch Celtic's games more and follow Celtic now. Celtic is the very best Scottish football club and thanks to Nakamura, Celtic was popular and well known among Japanese football fans even before Ange Postecoglou era. However, he is surely making more Japanese football fans to watch Celtic games recently.

Next season, I want to see it happen that Celtic will give some hard times to European giants (EPL's mega clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, PSG, etc) in the Champions League.

The worst case is, a big club like Chelsea buy Postecoglou and he brings Hatate to his new club with him. I mainly watch EPL games, La Liga games and Bundesliga games. Without Hatate, I might watch Brighton's game (for Mitoma), Real Sociedad (for Kubo), Arsenal (for Tomiyasu) etc. I mean, I'm a Japanese football fan, so I tend to watch the games where my favorite Japanese footballers are playing.

So, as I wrote a moment ago, I'm a Japanese football fan, so I might be able to give some information about Japanese football and Japanese footballers to this forum.

 

Welcome mate. Any stand outs in the J League right now you think we should be looking at?

 

It might be off topic, but it's a little bit related to Ange Postecoglou.

Recently, Japanese football media are more frequently reporting about Scottish football league thanks to Ange Postecoglou and Japanese footballers he brought to Celtic. Today, some Japanese media are reporting about a Spanish football manager who used to be the manager of two J-League clubs. Reportedly, Scottish football club Aberdeen is likely to sign the Spanish football manager Ricardo Rodríguez. I'm Japanese, so I'm a bit curious if he will also bring J-League footballers to Scotland. I think he is a competitive football manger. I mean, J-League is like Bundesliga without Bayern or Scottish league without Celtic and Rangers. Any club can win the first place and any club can get relegated because good footballers don't gather in specific clubs and competitive footballers are scattered in many different clubs. So, in that sense, the quality of managers is more important in J-League. He has improved the squads of his teams in J-League, which might mean he is a good football manager.