“We’ll see how he is. He gets in tomorrow morning. He played 20 minutes and I haven’t seen the game and I haven’t spoken to him yet so we’ll probably have a chat with him when he lands tomorrow and see how he feels,” Ange Postecoglou said at yesterday’s Media Conference ahead of tonight’s Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park, when discussing the situation regarding Daizen Maeda who came off the bench yesterday on 68 minutes in Japan’s 2-0 World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia before boarding his flight back to Glasgow “He definitely won’t start but there is a chance he will make the squad. We’ll just see how he is and Tommy (Rogic) will play 90 minutes so you can pretty much rule him out.” In fact Rogic was substituted on 62 mins in the second half as Australia were held to a 2-2 draw away to Oman, so maybe there’s an outside chance he could also make the bench this evening.
One player who won’t be involved is the stand-in skipper over the last few games but there was more positive news about Calmac. “Nir Bitton is suspended. Callum McGregor trained with the team today and I’m not really sure, I will make a decision on that later,” Ange said.
Responding to a ‘confidence levels’ question that suggested that Ange wasn’t at all sure about himself going to Ibrox at the start of the season, as you would expect, he was having none of that! “I didn’t feel less confident going there as it was still a pretty tight game when we played them.
“It was early in the piece obviously and we were still very unsettled and we still signed a few players after that game. Two or three of the starting line-up actually left after that match if memory serves me well. It was a difficult period for us and it has been well-chronicled but we have been pretty settled for the last few months in terms of our form, performances and results. From our perspective, that’s what we want to continue.
Asked about Celtic’s form wit 12 wins in the last 13 league matches: “I just think we need to continue making progress, our football has been consistently good and we just need to keep doing that as we are still not at the levels we want to be and we still have key absences in terms of the squad and the line-up which doesn’t allow us to rotate the squad the way I would like to. Hopefully, over the next two or three weeks, we can become stronger in that area and with that our football improves as well.
The importance of a win tonight is not lost on Ange Postecoglou. “It is important for our supporters as there is no doubting that this is a fixture that they look forward to, particularly at home as they want to have an enjoyable night and that means us winning.
“The whole psychology of it I know. I have been around long enough and the first question I will be asked if we win on Thursday morning is does this mean you will get complacent? Does this mean you have some sort of edge?
“The reality is that it is an important game for us and this football club for a number of reasons. Most importantly for our supporters. Secondly, we have a chance to go top and put the club in a position which will be good. After that, we have got to dust ourselves down at the weekend and go again.
“I am looking forward to it and it should be great. Our supporters got denied the chance to watch the derby last year and at the beginning of this year. A full Celtic Park rocking tomorrow will be great.”
Asked if he gets nervous ahead of these big games: “I think I’ve gone beyond the nervous stage. That’s the reason you are involved in football. It is one of the main reasons I relished the opportunity to take over this football club. You are involved with big games, big crowds and big consequences. I am past the nervousness stage but it doesn’t mean I don’t get excited by it or look forward to it. It is why we do what we do. We are all passionate about football and we love the big moments whether that be as a player, manager or supporter. I am looking forward to it.”
“I think we have been on a good run for quite a while. We have had challenges all along and Dundee United was another one. The players fought all along to get the job done. That can only be a positive for us and we know we can improve. We don’t have the personnel at the moment and we have had to deal with some absences of players that we are still dealing with. The players have shown great resilience and determination irrespective of what the challenges are but they have been able to overcome it.
Ange was asked again about Callum McGregor and also new Bhoy Matt Riley who has had an impressive first week as the club.”Having someone like Callum McGregor is a great asset for any club because he drives and lives the values that you want. I have often said, and I often say to the group, leadership comes in many forms. You can get leadership from the youngest player on the pitch because it could be an act of bravery or individual action that raises the levels of everyone by example.
“So leadership doesn’t just come down to age and experience although that helps in many respects and we have people like Joe Hart and others who help in that area. But on any given day it’s also about how everyone stands up in their moments. Leadership is Liel Abada having the composure to put the ball in the back of the net to inspire everyone to a victory so I’m really big on giving responsibility to the players so when they are out there it’s not about waiting for others to act, they can instigate it themselves and within that, you can get leaders all over the place.
On Matt O’Riley, Ange had this to say. “It will be a great experience for him and I thought he showed fantastic composure the other day. He’s played three games in a week, him and Reo at a level they probably hadn’t experienced before. For guys like that the more, we can expose them to environments like that the more they adapt and the quicker their development.
“Tomorrow night it will be the first derby at home for a few of our guys so I think they will all be excited and looking forward to it. If they live that experience and stay positive it helps them grow, not just as players but as people because you feel a little bit more confident about yourself when you’ve been in the hottest of environments and come through it successfully.
On his side’s never say die attitude: “You just keep feeding into the environment. When things like last-minute goals happen it keeps feeding into itself and players gain more belief. A lot of it is just when you look at the group now, a lot has come in with a point to prove without too much hype around them.
“So they are all a determined lot and I try to fuel that, to continually push them to allow them to show to people that A, they belong at this football club and B, that they can be successful. And that happens every day, it happens at training. Every time I talk to them, I’m pretty consistent in the messages I give them that A, it’s part of your responsibility when you join this football club and B, what a great place to be if you are ambitious and have something to prove. Which for the most part, the ones here are looking to achieve and I will continue to stoke that fire.
“I’m pretty consistent in saying our approach can’t change due to circumstances whether that’s domestically, in Europe, home or away. I’m big on consistently saying to the players we have to believe in something, and if you do that and believe it deep to your core, you don’t change, you can’t change even if you want to because it’s part of you.
“In the context that could be if you are one-nil down or it’s 0-0 and we need a goal, we don’t need to change our approach because that’s the same from the first minute. We go at the opposition and we try and score goals.
“Sometimes when you have a different kind of approach, you find yourself in a circumstance when you are trying to chase a game or defend, if you start chopping and changing what you do it just leaves you open to being vulnerable. We are not there yet but I can sense the group is starting to believe in something and that’s what I’m big on because once you have got that belief it doesn’t matter what happens, it can’t be shaken from you when something is part of you and you feel it to your core.
“Whatever it is in life it would take something very extreme to take you off the path and that includes for me the type of team we want to be.”
Watch Ange Postecoglou speaking to the Media below and COYBIG!
