How do you lift The Celtic players after the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat last weekend? Maybe tell them to take a quick look at the league table? Remind them that they’ve beaten theRangers twice in the league this year taking 6 points from 6 and winning at both Celtic Park and most recently at Ibrox? Point out that they’ve not lost a League match since September?
None of the above actually as Ange Postecoglou pointed out yesterday that this is simply not his role and it’s not how things work at Celtic these days. “No. I think my role is to give the players feedback after every performance and result – good, bad or otherwise,” The Celtic manager explained.
“I have felt all along with every setback we have had, and there have been quite a few of them, the players have embraced every challenge and I didn’t sense within the group that there was any hangover from the result (at Hampden).
“We got back into training and they are disappointed of course but at the same time, they understand that what needs to happen after a result like that is that you put your energies in a positive way into the next game.
“The next game is Ross County at the weekend and I haven’t felt the need to lift them up or sensed a change in the mood. They have been a determined, resilient group all year and that is what I continue to see.”
So does that residence stand Celtic in good stead for the remaining five league fixtures that will determine the destination of the Scottish Premiership title this season? “That is what you rely on and you hope you have created an environment where the players embrace the challenges that lie ahead.
“We have had challenges all along. The players have been under that sort of pressure six games into the season and what we have tried to do is create an environment where they block out all that stuff and concentrate on what’s important.
“What is important is your performance coming into a game so that previous form and where you are in terms of your position in the table is irrelevant. That resilience has been there all year and at this important part of the season that is what you have to rely on and that the environment you have created will overcome any extra pressures, there may be.”
Asked if he has been surprised by the reaction to a defeat at Celtic compared to some of the other places he has managed, Ange Postecoglou said that he wasn’t and reckons that the reaction has been both logical and understandable.
“I am not surprised. It is entirely natural and logical and understandable. I am under no illusion that people will feel good or oaky after losing a game. It was the semi-final of the cup and an opportunity to get to a final against our biggest rivals and I think it’s only natural and it is a healthy thing as that is what maintains standards at this football club.
My role is to steer people through what is important to us in the short term because what I do know is that come Sunday is that all the supporters will be behind us 100 per cent and they will want us to do well.
“In terms of the people who are assessing our performance from a critical standpoint, they have every right to pick us apart and do what they feel is necessary in terms of appraisal. It doesn’t affect me or it shouldn’t affect the players as the only feedback they should think about is mine.
“Nobody is as honest about that when it comes to the way we are performing.”
Watch Ange Postecoglou’s Media Conference ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Dingwall to play Ross County below…
