Ange Postecoglou last night stated that there’s no reason why Giorgos Giakoumakis shouldn’t be involved on Saturday for the Scottish Cup 4th Round tie against Greenock Morton at Celtic Park.
The Greek striker would have started last night had it not been for a slight issue after the 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at Hampden on Saturday so the transfer linked goalscorer instead was in the Main Stand watching the game against St Mirren which the Bhoys won emphatically with two goals from Kyogo and one each from Liel Abada and substitute David Turnbull.
And the Celtic boss batted away any transfer conversation because as he far as he’s concerned nothing has changed and Giakoumakis remains a Celtic player who will be in his squad for the Scottish Cup tie which is live on the BBC.
“I see no reason why not,” the Celtic manager said, as reported by Glasgow Times. “I just deal with what is in front of me, and until I’m told otherwise or something significant happens. He was here tonight mate, so you could have asked him yourself! He’s still very much part of our set-up, I’m not playing ducks and drakes. He would have been involved tonight if he wasn’t injured.
“Giakoumakis and Carter-Vickers pulled up sore from the weekend. At a stretch, Giako might be available for Saturday,” Ange revealed. “Cam probably will be, but we’ll probably still rest him for Saturday even though it’s nothing significant.”
On Alexandro Bernabei confirmed that the young Argentinian will be back on Saturday after being given a well-earned rest last night. “Berna, I just thought I’d rest him tonight because he’s had two big games,” Ange said. “He’ll be back in on Saturday.”
With Cameron Carter-Vickers missing out last night, that allowed the Celtic manager to give new signing Yuki Kobayashi his debut and he certainly made the most of it and only the post prevented him from a getting a dream debut goal. He did get the assist though as his effort rebounded off the post into thr path of Liel Abada, who just loves those kind of opportunities.
“He was good,” Ange said on Yuki’s impressive debut as a left-sided central defender. “It’s not easy. He is still adjusting to the football here, the life here. They are a big strong, physical team, very direct. They launched some balls in the box so we had to deal with that side of the game, which I thought he did quite well. I thought he was really good on the ball, really composed. He will get better from that, but as an introduction, a first game, I thought he was good,” the Celtic manager stated.
Overall it was a decent night’s work as Celtic yet again maintained the nine points lead and increased the goal difference advantage. No wonder the manager was pleased. I thought we were good, really strong in all aspects of our game,” he said.
“We started the game well but, with their long throws, they have the ability to get the ball in the box without really advancing too far up the pitch. So we had to deal with some balls in the box, which I thought we handled well. Aside from that, I thought our football was really good. Our goals were outstanding. And there were some great moves that didn’t end up in goals. It was a really strong all-round performance.”
UNIQUE ANGLE
ANGE POSTECOGLOU’S POST MATCH INTERVIEW
