“We were kind of holding our breaths”; Ange opens up on Celtic signing’s sluggish start

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Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou reckons Giorgos Giakoumakis is the player to have benefited most from the recent international break.

Giakoumakis has been limited to just one substitute appearance for the Bhoys since signing at the end of August.

Fitness issues and a mild injury have hampered his progress and Ange has now admitted it was always going to take this amount of time to get him up to speed.

Now though, the Greek international is ready to play a part.

Postecoglou told The Daily Record: “Giakoumakis is the one who benefited the most from the international break. He missed pre-season and the start of the season. Then he had 10 days quarantine so he was really under-done.

“We were kind of holding our breaths to get him through to this break and he feels a lot better now.

“He feels ready to make an impact. That’s great for us. We have him, Albian Ajeti, obviously Kyogo, Jota, Liel Abada, there’s Mikey Johnston now available and James is on the way.

“We have good attacking options to start and on the bench. We’ll be in good shape.”

While it feels likely that Kyogo Furuhashi will get the nod as the team’s central striker today, expect to see Giakoumakis off the bench in the second half.

All his work on the training ground has gotten him to this point, but he really needs minutes on the pitch to build that sharpness in the final third.

It will also be handy for supporters to get a glimpse of what kind of player he is and how he can fit into this tactical system.

I reckon it’s become clear Albian Ajeti isn’t the answer in terms of Kyogo back-up – can Giakoumakis now prove himself?

In other news, Postecoglou provides weekend fitness update on Celtic duo Tom Rogic and Kyogo.