Ange Postecoglou reckoned that his side looked a bit rusty after the three week winter break but declared himself happy with the overall performance and noted with some satisfaction he two stand-out debuts from Man of the Match Reo Hatate and goalscorer Daizen Maeda. Both players certainly thrilled and excited The Celtic Support on what was far from a Blue Monday for the near-on 60,000 home supporters.
The last time we had a Happy Monday like last night was back in May 1979!
Hibs incidentally played very well, although created very little other than the sitter Kevin Nisbet missed moments before Daizen Maeda’s clinical finish inside the first 5 minutes of the match. While it’s fair dos to acknowledge that Hibs played well it’s also worth noting that their fans, when Paradise was lit up by the home support on the 67th minute in the traditional tribute to Celtic’s 1967 European Cup triumph in Lisbon, the visiting fans choose to chant about the Lisbon Lions not seeing ten in a row. A scummy chant worthy of the Ibrox or Tynecastle supports so it’s sad to see Hibs fans descending to that level.
“It was a solid first half. We started really well – I thought the first 30-35 minutes we were really bright with good tempo,” The Celtic manager told Celtic TV. “We created a lot of chances again but were a bit wasteful in front of goal. The second half wasn’t as dominant in terms of creating opportunities but I still felt we had most of the control of the game.
“It’s a fine balance – the boys haven’t played for three weeks and they were fresh, but we looked a bit rusty with some of our passing as well. Hopefully that will improve.
On Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda’s debuts, Postecoglou was full of praise for both players. “Yeah the boys both did well. I guess that’s the advantage of getting them in for the first training session – well Reo got in a few days later but they’ve had a good week or 10 days with the boys and that’s helped them settle in.
“They’re both naturally fit guys anyway so I wasn’t really concerned too much it was just a matter of them understanding the game. I thought today was a good game to expose those two to what it’s like playing for this football club at home,” the manager said.
One aspect that was immediately noticeable last night was the incredibly strong bench that Celtic had, this sharply in contrast to the team-sheets throughout December when Celtic were running on empty. Scott Bain, Liam Scales, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Jota, James McCarthy, Mikey Johnston, Guchi, Anthony Ralston and Stephen Welsh were the substitutes last night and most are likely to feature on Saturday evening in the Scottish Cup 4th Round match away to Alloa Athletic.
“Well there are plenty of games so we’re going to need all of them. There will be plenty of opportunities for all of them to get some game-time,” Ange noted. “We know in the first half of the season we struggled at times with absences. We want to make sure we’ve got a strong enough squad now to withstand that – we’ll give game-time to the guys to make sure they’re up and ready to go.”
