Ange Postecoglou wants his Celtic side to maintain their winning run and wonderful form heading into the final few games of the cinch Premiership campaign. It’s been a gargantuan effort from the Bhoys since they returned to domestic action after the World Cup in Qatar this season, still only dropping points at Ibrox in January.
Sweeping aside all in sundry is undoubtedly an achievement at this stage, but the boss sees no point to any of it if we decide to take our eye off of ball and fail to dispense of Stuart Kettlewell and his Motherwell side, come three o’clock this Saturday afternoon in the Glasgow sunshine.
The Steelmen have found some meaningful form since they parted company with Stevie Hammell and will present a significantly different challenge for this potential record-breaking Hoops side. Greg Taylor touched upon the same concept in his media conference too yesterday at Parkhead and the focus is always on the immediate as opposed to the end game.
There’s no denying the supporters are itching to see this magic Celtic team take their place in the pantheon of the greats, and deservedly so if they manage to win a Treble and smash previous points and goal tallies – all whilst remaining unbeaten. It would be a culmination of the hard work and determination that has permeated the of Lennxotown and Celtic Park since Ange Postecoglou took over the managers hot seat.
As football fans, we always see the end results – the finished product as it were. However, what we are not privy to is the phenomenal and back-braking man hours that goes in to remaining unbeaten in all competitions and beating previous incumbents records – incumbents, may I add, that are of the highest quality in footballing circles.
With Ange having said previously, when some of his contemporaries questioned his work ethic: if you think he just goes into the training ground, grabs a cup of tea and goes home, your delusional. From where we were in 2021, to were we stand today has been a monumental amount of elbow grease that has been peppered with elite coaching, of course.
That razor sharp focus of what is directly in front has been one of the hallmarks of this modern Celtic team, and the manager has insisted nothing will change against Motherwell today in that respect. When asked about the potential of breaking records this season for points gained, he said: “We’ve been really good at just focusing on the next challenge because all of that becomes irrelevant if we don’t win tomorrow.
“You can look beyond tomorrow and say if we do this or that, but unless we win then it all dissipates. Our motivation is to play our best football tomorrow, get another win – especially in front of our supporters – score some goals and get closer to our overall target which is to win the title again.’
“Since the World Cup, our form and football have been really strong and it’s been better than the first-half of the year where I thought we were still really excellent. The key for us is to finish the season strong irrespective of what we’ve done so far. We’ve got six games in the league plus a cup semi-final and if we can finish with our best form now then it will put us in a good place.”
