Ange Postecoglou was asked about keeping his players feet on the ground after the win at Ibrox last Sunday stretched the Celtic lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to six points with just six games remaining, starting with the home match against St Johnstone tomorrow afternoon.
It makes a change for questions about his task in keeping heads up earlier in the season and is perhaps a sign of imminent Celtic triumph in a league campaign with the biggest financial prize ever on offer to the winners. No one is getting carried away within the squad or indeed the management, although the Celtic supporters are reasonably certain that the title is going our way!
“I haven’t had the need to do that or think about that because the behaviour of the players hasn’t really changed,” Ange began. “Even preceding last week, I’ve said all along, we kind of know what our process is and what we need to do every week.
“Every game is a different challenge. Every game has a bit of edge to it, particularly when you get to the end of the season. So I’ve said the last couple of weeks that, for me, the indicator is training and we’ve got everyone trained and everyone training well, super competitive. They all want to play. Any thoughts are of them preparing themselves to the best of their ability to be ready for the game tomorrow, I haven’t seen anything other than that.”
The second question asked concerned Kyogo who Ange said was fit ahead of the game at Ibrox but in the end didn’t feature.
“Yeah, he was fit last week in the end it was a judgement call on my behalf to maybe be a little bit conservative with him but he’s trained all week. I was keen for him to have a full week of training.
“Yeah, he’s alright to go. He’ll be involved tomorrow, 100 per cent he’ll be part of the squad.”
Ready 💪🏻
準備万端💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/W9mtfoNhs9
— Kyogo Furuhashi 古橋 亨梧 (@Kyogo_Furuhashi) April 8, 2022
But news on James Forrest isn’t so good. “Yeah, James is probably another week we’re hoping. He’s got closer but he’s the only one that’s not really available for tomorrow,” Ange responded.
Asked next about heading into the closing stages with the squad arguably in the best shape it’s been, the Celtic manager was emphatic in his response.
“It’s not arguably – it is. I said last week, I think it’s the healthiest we’ve been all year in terms of players available in good condition and ready to play. That’s great for us because it maintains training levels and maintains the boys’ focus every day. So from that perspective, we’re in good shape.
“The January window was important one for us in terms of just it allowed us to bolster up the squad, but also allowed us to share some game-time and get some guys back like Kyogo, Dave Turnbull and others without having to rush them. So for the final stretch, we’re in good shape.”
Watch Ange’s Media Conference below…
