Like I seen on Twitter on Sunday, someone brilliantly described it as ‘I wouldn’t say Ange’s honeymoon period is entirely over but he’s at the airport and the flight home has just been called.’
Albeit we have a number of key players out just now and like Ange quite rightly points out he feels like he’s ‘walked under a ladder’ we NEED to start winning football matches.
10 points from a possible 21 in the league so far is nothing short of woeful. The last two results in the league are one’s that we may look back on at the end of the season and really say that those (straightforward 3 points) games have ultimately cost us a Champions League group stage place.
Ange Postecoglou has now had 16 games under his belt at Celtic, winning 8 games, drawing 2 and losing 6. A mere 50% win ratio so far - compare this to his win ratio at his previous teams:
Yokohama Marinos: P161, W80 (49.6%)
Australia: P49, W22 (44.9%)
Melbourne: P32, W15 (46.9%)
Brisbane: P84, W43 (51.2%)
I’m afraid a 50% win ratio at Celtic ain’t going to cut the mustard. This is why we must start getting results, Ange hasn’t been helped by the boardroom and we know that, with the lack of real squad depth coupled up with the unsettlement off the park it has been a challenging to start to life for the Aussie in Glasgow.
Ange said after the game on Sunday, “We're disappointed with the outcome obviously but in terms of our approach to the game and the way we played, the manner in which we took the game to them, I think it's exactly what our supporters want to see." I’ll stop you right there Ange. Most Celtic supporters will disagree overwhelmingly, Celtic fans want to see us get 3 points, performances are a bonus but we want to see results. If we are putting in performances but aren’t going to get results then Ange will be out the door very quickly.
Despite what Ange said, there has been some positive signs of his ‘Angeball’ but we need to see more, it’s alright winning comfortably at home to Dundee and St Mirren but let’s see a big away performance that gets us 3 points or a notable European result that will excite the fans.
On the topic of Europe, I think we should all expect a defeat on Thursday against a top class Bayer Leverkusen side and then focus should shift to Sunday’s huge match at Pittodrie.
Win that and we can refocus and get ready for bringing back the likes of Kyogo, McGregor, Jullien and Forrest post international break with hopefully the aim of building up a decent run of results and getting ourselves back into a decent position in the league.
Lose? That’s an entirely different story.
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