At yesterday’s Media Conference ahead of today’s Scottish Premiership match against St Johnstone at Celtic Park Ange Postecoglou was asked how he keeps his players focused on one game at a time especially with just six games remaining in the league this season and with Celtic having doubled the lead at the top of the league looking down on theRangers with that 2-1 at Ibrox last Sunday. Here’s Ange’s response.
“If I had to worry about those things right now, we wouldn’t be in this position because, as people are aware, after around six we knew we had to be perfect.
“If we were worried about consequences of games or looking too far ahead we would have tripped ourselves up well before now. Our focus has been on playing every game on its merits trying to win every game of football knowing there’s three points on the line or if it’s a cup competition, for us to continue.
“And once we get that done, then we move on to the next one. And that will continue to happen till the end of the season.
“And once we hit the end of the season and we’re done and dusted, where we end up is where we end up.”
Yet after such a significant win over the Rangers last weekend, where Celtic opened up a six point gap that had all theRangers supporters conceding the title, forgetting that a few years ago they were all of a sudden adamant that they had every chance to still win the league despite the gap that existed when play was stopped and they were 13 points behind Celtic, was there an extra spring in the step of the players this week given what happened last weekend?
“No, it’s been pretty normal,” Ange replied. “Maybe I’m not a great barometer of moods or mood swings, mate. I kind of keep to myself so maybe they’re partying and I don’t know, maybe they’ve got disco balls and dancing around.
“Unlikely I’d say but what I look at is how we train and how we present ourselves every day as a group. And when I see them out there I haven’t seen any change whatsoever from the way we’re prepared for the last game, we’ve prepared exactly the same way for this game.”
With competition for places so intense at the moment – and today Kyogo will return to the squad – one of the Celtic fan media questions concerned young Karamoko Dembele and whether he has a part to play in the first team between now and the end of the season?
“I mean, that depends. Luckily with him we can get him some game-time in the B team, Johnny Kenny’s another one. They’re training with us every day but, as I said, training’s super competitive.
“We’ve got 26 or 27 players who all want to be not just part of the first team but part of the squad on the weekend and we’ve got some fantastic players missing out on the squad.
“Stephen Welsh has been outstanding for us this year and unfortunately we can’t fit him into the squad at the moment because of the balance, but that’s how competitive it is. So whether it’s Karamoko or anyone else in this group, the only way of thinking that they can go with is to just be ready, train hard every day and be ready.
“I don’t know whether he’ll be involved. I don’t know about any players. What we do as we approach every game is I try and select the team and squad that I think will get the job done for us every week. We do that then we analyse it and we do the same thing the following week.
“All the players every day are in front of me and have an opportunity to show the best they can be and then it’s up to me to make those decisions. So, as I say, with Karamoko he’s training with us every day. It’s great he can play with the B team, they’ve got some good games coming up. Tomorrow and then Tuesday (against theRangers at Celtic Park). Johnny Kenny, similar boat so with that game-time it gives them another opportunity to be ready if the opportunity arises.
Watch Ange’s Media Conference below…
