Ange Postecoglou reacts to Celtic's 4-3 defeat to Rennes

“It’s been a good week of training for us, the boys have worked hard,” Ange Postecoglou reflects on this week’s training camp in Portugal…

Celtic lost 4-3 to French side Rennes this afternoon at the club’s winter training base on the Algarve in Portugal. You can watch the three Celtic goals scored by Matt O’Riley, who got a double, and Kyogo.

Ange Postecoglou despite the result was pleased with the week of intense training in the sunshine and mentioned the importance of this for players like Carl Starfelt and Callum McGregor who have had injury problems to contend with this season.

“There were some good bits, some not-so-good bits but overall it’s been a good week of training for us,” the Celtic manager told Celtic TV. “The boys have worked hard and probably felt the effects of it in today’s game at times, but overall it was a positive week.

“We got some minutes into the players, particularly Callum McGregor and Carl Starfelt who haven’t played a lot recently and they have all come through it really well.

“We gave the boys a week off which we thought was important after the schedule we had and we obviously went to Australia and it was a great week but it took a toll on them in terms of the travel. So to give them a week away to freshen up was good and it was really important we got them back focused in here.

“We’ve been able to train here with good facilities and work hard for seven days and we have a normal lead into the Aberdeen game.”

New signing Yuki Kobayashi trained with the squad this week while Ally Johnston will meet up with his new teammates on Monday.

“It’s been a bit early for him (Kobayashi) and it’s just an introduction and we’ve got a good three weeks before he’s even available to play. It’s just been a case of him getting to know the lads and how we train and as always the boys have been really good and the next few weeks it’s about getting up to speed.

“It will definitely be a positive experience for all our boys, they’ve all done well at the World Cup. They’ve all played meaningful minutes and they’ve all been really strong contributors to their countries and when you do that at a World Cup, absolutely you come back with a little bit more belief in yourself.

“We will get Aaron Mooy, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Daizen Maeda back early this week and Alistair Johnston joins us so it will be good to have them back into the group,” Ange added.

Josip Juranovic, who is now a target for Chelsea, is guaranteed two more games at the World Cup and could see his transfer valuation soar even higher, well beyond the £25m Arsenal paid for Celtic academy graduate Kieran Tierney.