Celtic great John Hartson has been left perplexed with Ange Postecoglou after he decided to move all responsibility away from his players.
The Hoops manager protected his stars in his post-match Celtic TV interview after yesterday’s 1-1 draw against Dundee Utd. Interestingly, Postecoglou was pleased with how his team approached the game and believes the players gave everything. He then stated the responsibility was on him and not his team.
That’s despite the fact Celtic were anything but in control yesterday. United had some big opportunities on the counter and could’ve easily scored another themselves.
And speaking post-match on Celtic TV yesterday, Hartson couldn’t bring himself to understand what Postecoglou was even on about:
“Ange has just said there ‘I’ll take the responsibility away from the players.’ What does that mean? Has he picked the wrong team? Does he mean the players aren’t good enough?
“It’s a difficult one and let’s not forget this is coming off the back of one of Celtic’s worst performances in many years against Livingston last week. Celtic have to respond and Ange will have wanted to see a reaction. The endeavour was there and on another day we might have won.
“But at the end of the day we haven’t kept a clean sheet and we haven’t been ruthless enough.”
Ange Postecoglou likely looking to keep the pressure off his Celtic players
In fairness to the manager with this one, it’s not difficult to see what he’s trying to do. There’s no point in analysing it to death, but he’s likely just looking to take some pressure off of his players.
Sure, we can debate whether this is indeed the best course of action. Many fans would much rather the players were called out for a day like yesterday. But he has to keep the dressing room onside, and he’ll feel this was his way of doing that.
Every manager has his own style. What we’ve come to learn about Postecoglou is that he won’t be throwing anyone under the bus. He’s yet to blame his players for any of the poor performances even though they’re the ones who cross the white line every game.
But we’ve seen what can happen when a manager calls out his players. There’s a time and a place for it and Postecoglou clearly doesn’t feel we’re at that juncture quite yet. And he’s right in fairness to him.
The players themselves, however, need to be taking some private responsibility here. This simply isn’t anywhere near good enough, and many of them are capable of so much better than what they showed against Livingston and Dundee Utd respectively.
It’s a big month ahead for this current group. Postecoglou can’t defend them after every game, and even he will be close to his breaking point if results don’t improve immediately.
In other news, Anthony Ralston dismisses Celtic injury fear after taking sore one yesterday
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
