Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou hasn’t been left too impressed with Robbie Neilson’s comments on the size of his squad.
The Hoops go into tomorrow night’s game at Tynecastle missing several important players. Tom Rogic and Daizen Maeda are on international duty whilst Callum McGregor and Yosuke Ideguchi are both sidelined with injury knocks.
Neilson talked up the Celtic squad and made it sound as though Ange has easy alternatives even with his injury concerns [Football Scotland].
And that’s not something the Hoops boss appeared overly-enamoured with when asked about it at his pre-Hearts presser today. Speaking via Celtic TV, Ange said: “Big squads only work when everyone is available. There is no manager who will tell you they want a big squad because they want to be able to call on players because of absences. They want a big squad to use that squad to maximum effect on a consistent basis.
“The reality of it is we haven’t been able to. We’ve had to play players repeatedly and it’s why we struggled in the first half of the year with having a settled team. The workload fell on too few, so hopefully moving forward that situation improves and we can navigate the fixture schedule which you also have to not.
“Our fixture schedule is a little bit different from other clubs. So other managers commenting on the squad I’ve got and so forth need to take into account the bigger picture.”
Ange Postecoglou left hugely unimpressed with Robbie Neilson’s Celtic analysis
Neilson did make it sound a little too much like football manager. The idea that we just take out Liel Abada, put James Forrest in, and everything is fine is premature. Especially when the manager is trying to produce a settled XI on a weekly basis.
Of course I think you can see to an extent what Neilson was getting at. As funny as it is to have a pop at him, you can see the benefits of having a big squad even with injuries. It allows you to bring in better quality which of course gives you a better chance in any game.
But Ange is right to push the narrative that it only really has its maximum effect when all players are available. It allows you to rotate regularly and keep your top players fresh for every match. Imagine, for example, how strong Celtic would be with every player fit? We would blow anyone away in the league when comparing squads.
Celtic have so many midfield absentees tomorrow night that we could have to rely on the likes of James McCarthy to come back into the mix. Or perhaps Nir Bitton could come into the defensive-midfield slot. That’s not what Postecoglou would’ve envisioned last week.
It all really depends on how long our top players are out for. Should it be a substantial period of time, then Ange is spot on in that it doesn’t really mean much. Hopefully, that’s not a scenario we’re having to deal with.
Regardless, tomorrow night is hotting up nicely. There appears to be a bit of slight animosity between Ange and Neilson – most likely due to the Hearts boss’ constant moaning after losing to the Hoops. Here’s hoping he has something else to be raging about tomorrow night.
In other news, Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou delivers touching Wim Jansen tribute
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