Ange Postecoglou

That’s * Damo!

 

The career trajectory of Celtic's Ange Postecoglou to strike fear into rest of cinch Premiership
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou’s coaching career has followed a pattern that is entitled to fill cinch Premiership opponents with dread.



The Australian maintains it isn’t a given that a serene close season - in contrast to the “chaotic and frenetic” period as he signed up a team of players in his opening months last summer - “doesn’t guarantee we’ll be ready to go” as his team open up the defence of their title at home to Aberdeen on Sunday. Yet historical precedents from the 56-year-old’s eminent trackside career give every indication Celtic will crank their game up from the level that proved good enough to claim them the championship. Starting with his first managerial post at South Melbourne a quarter of a century ago, Postecoglou has always really hit paydirt in his second season with clubs. That was when he won the Premiership and Championship with Melbourne, achieved this feat with Brisbane Roar in 2010-11 and the stage at which he ended Yokahama F. Marinos’ 15 year wait for a league crown – with one of the lowest budgets in the top flight of the Japanese set-up.

Laurels are never rested upon by the Australian and he has already firmly moved on from remarkable title triumph he presided over last season. “Sunday[’s flag day] is more of a symbolic thing for the club to celebrate last season’s achievement with our fans and acknowledge that success,” the Celtic manager said. “But, in realistic terms, that line was drawn by us on day one of pre-season. We came back in and everyone was ready to go again, looking ahead rather than back. What I try to do with every environment I’ve been in is to try and create something that will surpass anything that has happened before. So when I took over last year, the expectation for that year was to be the best team we could be and see where that took us. It’s the same this year. It’s not about us coming back as champions, or having more pressure and expectation. My goal and ambition is to make us the best team we can be. And if we achieve that and become better than last year and perform at higher levels, then we’ll see what comes with it. You can’t let other things derail you from that primary objective.”




Postecoglou revealed that he hopes to have Carl Starfelt “available for selection” next week, with the Swede given the all-clear to begin full training following his hamstring injury on international duty in June. Yosuke Ideguchi is expected to be out for a couple of weeks after sustaining a “nasty” gash in training. Meanwhile, in expecting player “comings and goings” in the last month of the window, he intimated that Mikey Johnston will head out on loan, with the injury-beset winger linked with a move to Standard Liege, where his former Celtic manager Ronny Deila took up the reins last month. “He’s one of the ones I’m keen to get out there and get some games,” Postecoglou said of the 23-year-old. “He’s been really unfortunate with injuries, but this pre-season, he hasn’t missed a session and he’s been great. But he’s at an age where I think he needs a strong season behind him. He’s going to get limited opportunities here, so we are working with Mikey to try and find a solution for that.”

 

CELTIC supporters would settle for more of the same if it meant the title coming back to Parkhead again next May.

But that’s the last thing Ange Postecoglou wants his players thinking as they get ready to go again




This time last year the then new Hoops boss had to make big changes to his squad.

This summer has seen him tinker as opposed to rip it up and start again as he did then.

New players Moritz Jenz, Aaron Mooy, Alexandro Bernabei and Benji Siegrist have come in.

And Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers have signed permanent deals after successful loan spells.


On the coaching side former Liverpool star Harry Kewell has arrived as first-team coach.

The end goal is the same — to see off the rest and become champions of Scotland again.

But Postecoglou reckons anyone who just assumes that is going to happen is in for a shock. He explained: “We have brought in Harry and made a couple of subtle changes to the coaching staff, so people don’t get too comfortable in terms of the voices that they hear.

“You are always trying to make those subtle changes because, from the first day of pre-season, you don’t want the players to think, ‘OK, we’re just going to roll out what we did last year’ and expect success to come. That’s not how it works.




I always try to maintain a dynamic environment where there is an enthusiasm and freshness around the place.

“Sometimes that’s new voices, sometimes it’s subtle changes around where you train or the way you train.

“It’s not about one person. It’s just about making sure players and staff continue to improve.

“You need that uncertainty there to motivate them to improve.”

Postecoglou wanted to bring something new to his staff and Kewell, 43, fits the bill.




The ex-Leeds and Australia winger has carved a reputation as a promising coach after spells as a boss at Crawley, Notts County, Oldham and Barnet.

And having played under bosses like Rafa Benitez at Anfield and Frank Rijkaard at Galatasaray, Postecoglou is eager to see what he will bring.

He said: “He offers something different to our coaching staff.

“He has had some experience of managing his own sides and before that had some incredible experiences as a player working under some fantastic managers.






He has some great personal experience to draw upon when dealing with the players and he is at an age where he is closer to their generation.

“All those things help, but he is also here to develop. My job is to ensure he keeps developing, keeps improving.




My job is to challenge everyone here, but he’ll also learn from the likes of John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan and also Stephen McManus and Darren O’Dea. They all help each other.”

Celtic’s league season got off to the worst possible start last time out when they lost to Hearts at Tynecastle.

The lack of time Postecoglou had to work with his players and bring new ones in was undoubtedly a factor.

But even though things are markedly different 12 months on, he admits there is still a sense of the unknown going into opening day.


He said: “People go on about that, but even with the pre-season we had it didn’t stop us being champions.

“My take on that is that you only know whether you are ready when the games start.

“I’m sure everybody feels they have had a great pre-season, that every signing has been fantastic.

“The real test comes when the games start.

“We didn’t have most of the guys in at this point last year, but we were creating an environment to make sure the boys didn’t make excuses.




We were going to roll our sleeves up and whatever challenge came before us we were going to overcome it.

It’s the same this year. It’s the same mood and the same mindset.

“We are expecting this year to be a tough battle, but we know we have the capability within the group to overcome it.”

One thing Postecoglou is sure about is that this Celtic squad is better equipped to deal with the demands that will be placed on it.

Kyogo Furuhashi, David Turnbull and Jota all missed spells of action last season, having played too many games in a short space of time.




Postecoglou is confident that won’t be an issue for any of his players this time around.

He said: “It’s fair to say that the key goal of our recruitment — outside of signing Cam and Jota — was that I felt we had gaps in our squad last year that meant some players were overburdened, particularly in the first half of the year.

“We paid a price for that, both individually and as a team. Kyogo, Turnbull, Jota, quite a few of them actually, missed chunks of the season because we were forced to play them relentlessly through that first part of the year.

“Hopefully, with the recruiting we have done and the availability of a stronger core group of players, we can manage that load better.




Once the midweek games start and particularly with the physical and mental toll of the Champions League games, we are going to have more than 13 or 14 players ready for that battle.

“I feel we are better placed to tackle that now.




We are still active. There’s still three or four weeks of the window to go and I’m sure there will be some more comings and goings.

“There’s nothing specific at the moment, but if there are areas we can improve and the right person becomes available we will move on it.

 

What a man , sets such high standards . Always pretty level headed as well . You can see the players love playing for him and we’ve got a great squad togetherness

 

Love him..

 

He's bang on about us no being clinical enough. We do waste loads of chances in a lot of game's..

You could tell by our triple substitutions that he wasn't happy with our final third work..

Loved how he was asked about Jota and scoring a great goal to seal the win and he says good goal but then pinpointed him as being one of the main culprits for giving the ball away

He's probably specifically meaning when he tried to do a little flick blind and gave it away about 30 yards from our goal. Keeping them on their toes..

 

Big Ange doesn’t do bullshit

 

He's bang on. We were at a 7/10 today.

 

That was * excellent.

 

If someone on the forum said what Ange said there would be about 30 members on here having a go at the poster about negativity. You can almost hear the, “but Jota scored fs, lighten up”.

Ange is spot on. We won the game but the standards dropped too many times for how good we are.

You’ve got to keep the standards high even when you’re winning otherwise you end up like Lennon, struggling to motivate the players every week or for smaller games.

 

A wee bit of our play I think we need to sort is how much more we play down the left compared to the right.

Taylor gets involved in play much more than Juarnovic or Ralston and generally is the main full-back who is in midfield getting involved and then in addition to that Welsh and Starfelt are the only centre-backs who pass the ball forward and down the wing or run into midfield with the ball.

Yesterday the first half Maeda was on the ball constantly and Jota barely had a sniff, then Jota went to the left and I actually don't even recall Maeda touching the ball when he went to the right. I remember when MAeda went to the right thinking be interesting to see him there and what he does but I feel like I can only remember him being on the ball once.

CCV needs to be more willing to pass a ball forward, Ralston tries also to do similar to Taylor just isn't slick enough but Juranovic could assert himself more, when the ball comes to the right, Taylor darts into the centre-circle and gets himself involved, when it goes left Juranovic doesn't really do the same he stays more right, could be tactics from Postecoglu but Ralston I felt when he played right back actually gets into where Taylor does so it seems more like Juranovic not showing the urgency or wanting to do it as much.

Needs sorted as we are wasting the player on the right a lot. The main times I remember us with the ball down the right it was because Hatate or O'Riley had stole the ball back quick and Juranovic had been overlapping or that. Pretty much never from us playing out from the back which always ends up going down the left.

 

I was reading along to this before you mentioned Carter-Vickers and it was who I was gonna highlight..

Happens a lot. He's a great defender for us and keeps it simple. Always pops it to our left centre half whether it's Welsh or Starfelt and they seem to be more willing when it comes to breaking the lines. Naturally with them being right footed and on the left side....they're gonna open their bodies up and go left to whoever has pulled out there. Whether it's Taylor. McGregor. Hatate..

Another thing is Juranovic seems to do a lot of covering defensively. Done one yesterday where he sweeped up lovely first half and got us going. Also whipped in a great ball for Maeda who headed it somewhere else. If Juranovic wasn't doing what Ange wanted than Ralston would be in without a seconds hesitation..

Again though our left side. Jota is easily more comfortable there and so is Maeda..

Jota's still good on the right but slightly less effective. He would never of been able to pull off that wonder strike off the right for example..

We 100% need another option with Abada who's comfortable on that side. I want a left footer for a bit of balance and guile. Will Ange want that though? Even when wee Dembele got a few game's he stuck him on the left wing. Think he likes to do that and keep the wingers fairly wide..

Whoever comes in needs to be able to skin his man one on one and produce in the final third. Preferably with a bit of pace and guile also..