Ange Postecoglou is staying focused on the short-term tasks at hand for Celtic, rather than the big picture of the title race with Rangers.
The Bhoys boss was a delighted man after his team scored a dramatic winner at home to Dundee United today, but knows improvement is needed to match the intensity of the upcoming derby.
After the match, he was asked by BBC Radio Scotland about closing the points gap to two today, as well as the opportunity to go top on Wednesday night.
Postecoglou said: “Look, we’ve kind of made a real concerted effort to only focus on ourselves. We got off to a pretty ordinary start in the league. When you lose three games in the first six, you have to be pretty much perfect from then on. There’s no point in getting anxious about other results.
“We’ve worked ourselves into a position now where we know if we win Wednesday night then we go top. But it won’t affect what we do.
“The end goal isn’t to be top in February, it’s to be top when the trophies are handed out. All it is is another opportunity for us to improve our football, which we’ll have to after tonight and to keep tapping into that spirit the players are showing.”
This is the perfect response as far as I’m concerned. It’s exactly the comments I want to hear ahead of what will be an incredibly hyped-up derby.
It’ll be three days of chaos in the media now as the title race truly gets ignited after today’s events.
Postecoglou will want to keep a neutral mindset in his squad and have them focus on their own football rather than the occasion.
If we can execute the way we know these players can play, I truly believe the three points will be ours.
In other news, 16-yr-old shines, O’Riley verdict; 3 things we learned as Celtic capitalise on rivals slip up.
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