“Manipulate them to suit things”; Former Celtic boss calls out irrelevant narrative

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Martin O’Neill has insisted the form of Celtic teams of the past doesn’t really matter much when it comes to the task of Ange Postecoglou’s side tonight.

The fact Celtic haven’t consistently won home matches in the UEFA Champions League over the last decade has been much-trumpeted in the media this week, almost laying the sins of years gone by onto Postecoglou’s brand new group.

For O’Neill, who did pick up some big European results, bringing up prior home form at this level has little relevance to what the Australian is trying to do at the Bhoys this year.

Speaking to The Scotsman, he said: “I sometimes think you can take stats and manipulate them to suit things. If you’re in a Champions League with three home games, I’m not sure those stats matter. If you base stats on 25 games, that’s different. It (home form) can easily come round again.

“When Carlo Ancelotti and Real Madrid, who had just won the Champions League and play in a big stadium themselves, talk about playing in an atmospheric place like Celtic Park, then that’s fantastic. The crowd tomorrow night will be important.

“There will be things that Ange has learned. He’s no fool. He will still want to go and attack, and that’s fine. Because it’s their first year in it, and they have a youngish side, I think the Celtic fans will go along with that.

“I think he will feel that Celtic are capable of scoring goals. You can learn but you don’t have to change everything because someone says, ‘Oh, you’re a bit open’. They have been a wee bit unlucky in games (so far).”

This is a fair take, as you’d expect from the former Celtic manager. He isn’t interested in feeding into a narrative that home wins cannot be achieved at Paradise.

Ultimately, Postecoglou’s side should be judged on their own efforts rather than be lumped into these era-spanning ‘stats’ that are really of no consequence.

It’s up to this team to show they are capable and it starts tonight with the visit of RB Leipzig.

In other news, Ange Postecoglou steps up in front of Celtic players.