Ange Postecoglou has insisted that Hibernian will provide a great test for his Celtic side at Easter Road later on tonight. The Hoops are looking to maintain their nine-point gap at the summit of the Scottish Premiership and the Leith outfit will be aiming to make life as difficult as possible this evening.
It will be another tricky away day for Ange Postecoglou and his team, as they had to overcome Aberdeen at Pittodrie on their first domestic match following the restart after the World Cup in Qatar on 17 December. There was two home games after that sandwiched inbetween to contend with first; one to Livingston and the other St Johnstone.
After the disappointing display against Livi last mid-week, Ange was determined his side had to improve and they did – putting in a much improved performance against the Saints on Christmas Eve. Now it looks like being another tough away day, as the weather conditions aren’t great and Hibs have star striker Kevin Nisbet back fit.
The Celtic boss acknowledged this as part of difficulty facing the Bhoys tonight. “It will be a tough challenge, especially at their ground, he said via the official Celtic website. “I remember last year, we drew a game there and it was a tough game for us, so it’s a great stadium, they’ll get a good crowd and it feels like a big game, so it’ll be a good challenge for us.”
“Lee’s really determined to get them playing a certain way. That’s not easy until they have the players who want to play that style, but I think with a couple of more transfer windows you can see what he’s trying to do. They’ve got some real attacking threats, particularly with Kevin Nisbet coming back now as well, so it’ll be a good challenge for us. But we’re in a good run of form, we’re really focused on ourselves at the moment and being the best team we can be, and that’s what we’re going to have to deliver on Wednesday.”
After the insipid showing against the West Lothian outfit last Wednesday night, Ange decided to freshen up the starting XI for the visit of Callum Davidson’s side and it paid off as we looked rejuvenated and ran out 4-1 winners in the end. The big man insists rotation is key to maintaining standards and believes having quality that can step in is crucial. “It’s an important part of us as a team that the guys are prepared to put a shift in when required,” explained, the manager.
“Everyone wants to play every game but it’s impossible to do if we’re going to maintain the levels of performance that we need with the schedule we have. We need players out there all the time with energy, and our medical team, our sports scientists have done an outstanding job this year in terms of keeping our best players on the park all the time, and I think it’s helped that I’ve been able to rotate the squad and keep players fresh.
“Liel Abada definitely deserved to start on Saturday but, again, it’s such a short turnaround that, having James Forrest available and knowing what he can do, it made sense for us to make that change, and the same on the other side with Jota and Daizen. And Aaron Mooy’s come back from the World Cup, he’s in great condition, so we’ve got really good players and we’re going to utilise them.
“We’ve had a strong squad all along and we’re going to need it moving forward, not just for competition for places but to be able to maintain the levels of performance that we need.”
Paul Gillespie
