No compromising for Ange Postecoglou despite Celtic’s injury woes piling up

Ange Postecoglou last night insisted he would not compromise his football principles, describing Celtic’s current casualty list as, “just part of the process.”

The Hoops manager has been bedevilled by injuries to key players ahead of a hectic seven-game festive period.

Jota, the Portuguese winger who has so impressed on loan from Benfica, has already been ruled out of the Premier Sports Cup Final a week today with a hamstring problem.

And to the horror of supporters, last Thursday night’s Europa League tie against Real Betis saw first Albian Ajeti, and then his replacement off the substitutes’ bench, Kyogo Furuhashi, limp off with what appeared to be the exact same issue.

Postecoglou is optimistic a scan will show the Japanese as being fine to feature at Hampden, if not in the league visit of Motherwell today.

Nevertheless, with Tom Rogic, Tony Ralston, Stephen Welsh and Giorgos Giakoumakis all having had to receive treatment for their respective knocks, the Australian’s training regime and on-field demands of his players have come under renewed scrutiny.

Yet if he is concerned about having to go up against Rangers in the New Year derby with a team of walking wounded, Postecoglou does a good job of disguising it.

“It’s not a concern,” said the Celtic boss.

“It’s obviously something we want to get on top of, but it is not new to me, either.

“The way we play, I kind of understand – and have done at the clubs I’ve been at – that the beginnings are always difficult.

“We play differently and train differently and it takes players time to adjust to that and, along the way, we obviously pay a price.

“People forget that a lot of these guys didn’t do a pre-season with us, and came in late. So we’ve been playing catch up the whole way through.

“But the one thing I’ve never done, and I won’t do in my whole career, is compromise the football team we want to be because we are not quite ready to be there.

“I’d rather keep going at the pace we are going, and it means we are going to have some casualties along the way and have lost a few.

“I think, for us as football team and club, as we try to grow to be a certain type of side that plays a certain brand of football, it is just part of the process.

“You know, we’ll get better at making sure our players don’t pick up these kind of injuries – though the fixture scheduling makes it even more challenging.

“It is stuff we need to deal with, and we will. But we won’t compromise, and I won’t compromise, on the football we play, or the way we train because I know in the long-term that is going to give us the success we need.”

For Postecoglou, the willingness and spirit shown by the fringe players thrown in at the deep end against Real Betis last Thursday provided encouragement his footballing philosophy is being embraced by his whole squad.

“Look, you don’t go into a game not expecting to do well,” said the Aussie.

“The boys we put out there against Betis all work hard every day and our message to them is pretty consistent: they do that for a reason as footballers, but also to be ready when called upon.

“From my perspective, the pleasing thing was we approached the game in the same manner.

“As we have with every opponent, we took the game to them.

“There were a lot of guys out there that haven’t played regular football. That shows the message is getting through, namely that when you play for us – and irrespective of what has happened beforehand – you are expected to play in a certain manner, and take the game to the opposition.

“I was really pleased about that.”

Arguably, the player who has shone most under the current regime has been David Turnbull, with the midfielder heading into today’s meeting with his old club in impressive form.

“I still speak to people at Motherwell and I’ll be forever grateful for what they’ve done for me,” said the Scotland internationalist.

“The physio, Davie Henderson, was a second father to me when I was injured. If I wasn’t feeling good one day, then he’d just send me up the road and have a rest day.

“He really looked after me, and I really appreciate that.

“That was two-and-a-half years ago now, so I have moved on. I am with Celtic and this game is all about trying to keep our run going.

“It’s been going great over the last few games, and we kept that going against Betis on Thursday night.

“We aim to win each game, taking them one by one. We want to continue that run and win as many games as we can.”