When a team takes four off you at home it may be the moment some coaches would consider ripping up the blueprint and starting over again. Yet for Ange Postecoglou a 4-0 defeat at home to Leverkusen was the moment the manager believed in the players, and in turn they believed in his playing philosophy, because they knew as long as they went out there and did as they were asked the manager had their back.
Celtic Fan Media was represented at Ange Postecoglou’s press conference today by The Cynic, and it was they who asked the question that got the most in depth response from the manager once again. The Cynic asked: Are there any particular moments or games from earlier in the season when you knew the players had bought fully into your ideas even if the individual results didn’t go your way?
🚨PRESS CONFERENCE UPDATES
We have @DavFlan at todays press conference.
Here is a thread of some of the highlights ⬇️
▪️Everyone okay after weekend – no changes.
▪️JJ won’t make tomorrow but maybe weekend.
▪️ Everyone has put “maximum effort in” supporters included. pic.twitter.com/I5YWD872wz
— The Cynic (@90MinuteCynic) May 10, 2022
And it was the question which elicited the insightful response from the manager, that despite losing heavily to Leverkusen, the result masked a good performance from the players, one which was only undermined by the ruthlessness and quality of the opponent in capitalising on mistakes. And also on that night the players recognised that in Ange Postecoglou they had a manager who would not throw them under a bus.
“I think there are quite a few times this year where I think we’ve kind of stuck to our principles and it’s been important,” Ange replied. “I’ve spoken about when we lost 4-0 to Leverkusen, which wasn’t a great result and you don’t like losing by that margin, but I think the way we approached that that night and played our football, the players pretty much stuck to our principles where we just got beaten by a very good team and got punished for mistakes.
“I think at that moment, the players then looked to ‘what’s my reaction going to be?’
“I think that’s where you can sort of make sure that when you’ve got the players’ backs in that situation and you support them because they were trying to do what I was telling him to do then they buy more belief into that – that ‘OK, if things don’t go well, we’re not going to get hung out to dry here. He’ll support us.
“So those kinds of moments are really important when the results aren’t there because that’s when the pressure is at its most intense for you to potentially change your approach or to try and appease people who are sort of being critical of what you’re doing. You’ve got to stay strong through that,” Ange added.
“That’s easy for me to say – I’ve been through it before and I kinda know that you need to do that. But for the players, they need to see that before they believe in it. I think when you go through a tough time like that and come out the other side and they come into training and I’m still saying the same things and we’re gonna approach games in the same way then they buy into that.
“And then, you know, I think there’ll be different times in the year. When you talk about critical moments, you know. We’ve scored a few late ones, goals to get us results in games this year. All those goals came from us, in the dying moments of the game when we know we pretty much have to win, still playing our football.
“Whether that was Ross County, when we were still playing out from the back or Dundee United when we’re in the last minute when Liel scores and we’ve 10 men but we’re still trying to pass our way through to get into a wide area.
“The characteristics are there at the most desperate of times and that shows you that the players have really bought into what we’re trying to do.”
It’s interesting to note that a heavy defeat, which could easily have resulted in a questioning of the manager’s tactics within the dressing room, instead had the opposite effect when the manager fronted the press and stated a 4-0 defeat had more than enough positives to take for him to be satisfied with his players effort and application.
It’s easy after that to understand just where the belief comes to keep going in games such as Ross County away and Tony Ralston’s 97th minute winner, or Liel Abada’s goal late in the day against Dundee United when down to ten men, and where the belief to not deviate from the gameplan emerged.
And considering those points in those games are the reason the title race isn’t going down to the wire, shows from moments of adversity, like that heavy defeat in Leverkusen, can come something altogether more positive further down the line.
It may not have felt like it at the time, but it seems a thumping European defeat – even if the game itself was much closer than than the scoreline suggests – did an awful lot more good than it did harm when it came to trust building between the players and the manager.
And with a league win now within touching distance it may well be a chastening Europa League defeat at home more than played its part in Celtic’s revival.
Niall J
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