Ange Postecoglou

He needs to have the team sit further back and force the opposition to come out and play and then hit them between the spaces.

 

Good to see there are plenty of would be coaches ready to help him out, should he need it.
I'm sure he will give you all a call any time soon.

 

Do you not get the concept of a fan forum?

 

*. That’s the game over for football forums, pundits and football journalists.

 

It’s Raith Rovers again in cup action at Celtic Park, as following the League Cup meeting earlier in the season, the Hoops will also welcome the Kirkcaldy side in the Scottish Cup after defeating Alloa Athletic 2-1 in the fourth round tie on Saturday.

Progress against the Clackmannanshire side came at a cost, though, with a slew of bruising tackles resulting in skipper, Callum McGregor, scorer, Liel Abada and new Bhoy, Yosuke Ideguchi all leaving the field in varying states of disrepair.

That leaves manager, Ange Postecoglou, with some rethinking to do, possibly in the immediate term with the visit to Tynecastle on Wednesday, and in the longer term with what looks like a serious injury to the captain.

The manager said: “Liel and Yosuke should be okay, I don’t see anything too major with them, but, obviously, Cal is a significant one and a disappointing one.”

And on the fifth-round draw that took placed immediately following the game, he added: “The key thing for that is that it’s at home. We’ve seen tonight, irrespective of the opposition how tricky it is when you play away from home.

“So having it at home with our pitch and our supporters is an advantage for us.”




Questionable tackles apart, the game against Alloa threw up all the expected hurdles an away tie against lower-league opposition brings, not least a tight synthetic pitch and a home outfit with nothing to lose.

And Postecoglou said of his first Scottish Cup tie in charge of the Celts: “It was a challenge. I still thought we should have won more comfortably than we did, we missed some chances and we overplayed things a little bit in the first half in particular.

“It’s not easy on this pitch, we know that but, as I said, I thought we could have made our night a little bit more comfortable.

‘We understand it’s a cup competition and the most important thing is you get through to the next round and give yourselves an opportunity, that’s the main thing.’

“There were quite a few guys that got some game time tonight which was important for us because they hadn’t played in quite a while.

“From that point of view it was good that we did that and hopefully that helps us move forward.”

Giorgos Giakoumakis got the scoring underway in the 14th minute with Abada adding the second just before the break.

The manager said of the Greek striker: “Obviously he didn’t play much in the first half of the season so it was good for him to start and good for him to score.

“He’ll get better, there are still parts of his game that he will improve on because he hasn’t played for quite a while, but as a striker it’s good that he got his goal.”

The focus now turns to the capital on Wednesday night when the Hoops take on Hearts on league duty.

The manager added: “Every game is going to be tough, every game is a challenge and we’ve just got to keep building on what we’ve been doing.

“We’re overcoming the challenges and there will be another one on Wednesday night but I’m looking forward to it.”

 

Just had a few scoops mate and was frustrated reading some comments.

 

Looking at his signings I trust the guy to get the big calls right

 

Not a fan of him, but I noticed McCarthy gave one of their players a good old boot after a few wayward tackles against us (magically he got booked for it, sums it up) I actually commended him for it as we got zero protection from the ref the entire game.

 

Was the * that injured Guchi he done. Aye it was good to see

 

I though that's who it was, hate seeing bad tackles but thought that was proper just! Refreshing to see someone in a Celtic jersey giving it back for once.

 

Ange Postecoglou has demanded refs protect players from reckless tackles.

And the Celtic boss has called on all officials to stamp out dangerous challenges which endanger stars and could damage the image of the Scottish game globally.

Postecoglou described the tackle from Alloa’s Mouhamed Niang which left his midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi on the injured list as “terrible” and hit out at an instant failure to address the issue.

Match ref Don Robertson issued only a booking, but SFA chiefs last night upgraded the offence to a red card which Alloa are set to fight.

Postecoglou confessed he told his stars to steer clear of more dangerous tackles after the Ideguchi incident and says officials must offer protection.

He said: “I think the referees role in any game is to be the protector of both sets of players and to make sure there’s an environment there that protects players from incidents like we saw.

“It wasn’t just the one that caused the injury, I thought there were quite a few challenges he could have taken better control of. For me, that’s one of the primary roles of any referee.

“I will be honest, I told some of the lads towards the end of the game to just not to bother going into tackles and just look after themselves because I didn’t want any more injuries.

“I just didn’t feel there was control of that environment. Sometimes players are just reckless, but that doesn’t mean it is excusable.

“We had a player who had a serious injury, there’s a couple of others who were lucky to escape from that and that is why I was disappointed with the way the night panned out.

“I don’t question referee’s decisions. I’ve never used them as an excuse.

“But, in terms of protection of players, that’s where referees have to be vigilant, because we’re told they will be at the start of every season,

“I’ve managed in different countries, I’ve managed in World Cups, and there are certain rules that have changed along the way in my 25 years of management.

“But the one consistent factor is that we’re always shown this vision of actions they deem to be premeditated or reckless.

“It doesn’t have to be premeditated, it can just be a challenge that is reckless, and anything that endangers a player on the field should be dealt with.

“I was disappointed it wasn’t dealt with the other night.”

Postecoglou believes the introduction of VAR in other countries has helped them clamp down on dangerous offences.

If it’s not clamped, he feels the worldwide reputation of the Scottish game could be tarnished.

Postecoglou continued: “Well I don’t think it’s a wider issue because most countries have VAR now and those kind of things don’t escape punishment anymore.

“That’s the right way to go about it. I don’t think anybody wants to see that and, at the same time, we want to sell this game and keep increasing the attention the game here in Scotland gets. We want to showcase it.

“We’ve signed players from the other side of the world, Hearts have signed a couple of Aussies.

“The game here is getting a global reach here now and I don’t think people want to tune in and see people getting hurt.

“They want to tune in and see exciting football, so it falls on everyone to protect the image of the game.

“If you have VAR, those sorts of incidents are dealt with pretty quickly now and what you see is less and less of them because players know they can’t escape that anymore.

“Here in Scotland, we obviously don’t have VAR, but it’s not just referees, because they can sometimes miss things.

“There are linesmen, fourth officials who are also part of the game and their role is to protect that environment so we all see what we want to see. Football being played.”

Ideguchi faces a term on the sidelines and the boss added: “To be out for a period of time because of something that during the game could have been taken control of by the referee is disappointing for him.”

 

On a fan forum, commenting himself, about people commenting, on a forum, about football, that he’s commenting on criticising those that are commenting on the stuff stuff he’s commenting on.

TC Inception that

 

Aye, cos he would have caught him his first attempt at retribution if the legs were there. My opinion on McCarthy’s performances are in a minority of myself by this point but I still feel like he can have a part to play but wanting to add the caveat when he gets up to speed whilst saying that makes me doubt my own opinion