Seamless Celtic transition showcases the beauty of Ange Postecoglou rotation

By Lewis Laird

October 20, 2022

In recent weeks, we have seen Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou rotate his starting 11 during an extremely busy period in the Hoops season.

The 57-year-old has regularly turned to several different options in all areas of the pitch, and that was no different as the Bhoys travelled to face Motherwell on Wednesday.

Coming off the back of an impressive 6-1 win over Hibernian at Celtic Park, the Hoops were going into this game full of form and confidence.

And one player who supporters had been left impressed with last weekend was fullback Alexandro Bernabei after he made his first start at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership.

The 23-year-old went on to put in a strong individual performance, setting up Giorgos Giakoumakis’ first strike of the game.

After producing a second solid display in a row, many questioned whether we would see the Argentinian keep his place in the side or whether Greg Taylor would instantly return.

Postecoglou chose to go with the latter, as the Scotland international stepped back into the starting 11 alongside Josip Juranovic, who replaced Anthony Ralston.

Although some supporters might have questioned the decision to replace Bernabei following on from his impressive Parkhead domestic debut, last night’s performance showcased the positives of Ange Postecoglou’s squad rotation.

Taylor matched Bernabei by producing an assist of his own during last night’s 4-0 win, setting up Liel Abada late in the opening 45 minutes.

The positives of Celtic rotation on show as Taylor and Bernabei display their quality differences.

Although both of our left-backs have helped provide in front of goal, their two separate assists in the last two games perfectly showed the different qualities they possess as players.

Setting up Abada, Taylor made a brilliant inverted run into the penalty area before playing a clever one-two with Sead Haksabanovic and squaring the ball for the prolific Celtic winger to tap home.

On the other hand, for Bernabei’s assist against Hibernian, the summer signing showcases his burning pace making an underlapping run for Haksabanovic, picking his head up and putting a well-weighted low cross into the path of Giakouamakis from the wide area.

Whilst both goals have similar patterns of play, with the left-back eventually squaring the ball to a member of the Celtic front three, it perfectly displays the differences in both players.

Both this season and last, Taylor has exhibited his brilliant ability as an inverted fullback.

After arriving in the summer window, Bernabei is still learning the system. But, his last two performances have shown he is getting there and also adding his own pacey qualities to the role.

On several occasions, Postecoglou has been keen to insist on the importance of having several quality wingers who all bring different traits to the table. Not one of them are the same player.

The same can be said for our fullbacks, with Greg Taylor, Alexandro Bernabei, Josip Juranovic and Anthony Ralston all bringing something different.

And that is the beauty of Ange Postecoglou’s rotations to his starting 11. It leaves the opposition guessing as to which pairing they might go up against and how they will prepare to stop them.

Although some might believe there are risks to making changes to the starting 11 each game, there are also plenty of advantages, which has been presented by the performance of our two left-backs in games against Hibernian and Motherwell.

In other news, Abada, Taylor, Juranovic and more take to Instagram as Celtic secure Hampden Park trip.