Postecoglou hails his stable Of Celtic ‘jockeys’
Parkhead manager proud of progression and chemistry of his front three after moves
CELTIC’S front three might all be uniformly diminutive and slight, but as they showed on Thursday evening against Ferencvaros, they are worth their weight in gold to Ange Postecoglou.
It was perhaps apt then that with all three of Kyogo Furuhashi, Jota and Liel Abada getting on the scoresheet in the 3-2 win in Budapest, the Celtic manager mused about the value of his ‘jockeys’, the trio that had helped his team clear a potentially treacherous hurdle.
Postecoglou is often questioned about the wisdom of his seemingly dogmatic philosophy of playing out from the back, particularly on the European stage where a better quality of opposition has been able to press his side high and punish errors on occasion.
When it works, it is undoubtedly effective and great to watch into the bargain, but Postecoglou says the physical stature of his attackers is such that he has no choice but to get the ball down and play to their strengths.
Their pace, movement and skill was too much for Ferencvaros to live with, and Postecoglou is convinced that further success will come if his team continue to feed his electrifying attackers.
“Jota, Liel and Kyogo coming here, their stocks have risen and I think that is because of the platform we give them,” Postecoglou said.
“It’s too easy to focus on the front three. The type of football we play from the back, we play it so we are not going long to them.
“They are all the size of jockeys, so we play our balls through midfield and have to give them that platform.
“They appreciate that and they have to invest in that by working hard defensively and I think that they do.
“They get their rewards.”
All three members of the attacking trident were taken off with 20 minutes to go in Budapest, and Postecoglou is mindful of the need to keep his frontmen as fresh as possible in order to get the best from them.
That was the thinking behind the omission of Liel Abada at times over the past few weeks, with the 19-yearold showing that the rest had done him good with a sparky showing in Hungary. In truth, the young Israeli has somewhat surpassed Postecoglou’s expectations so far.
“There’s a great deal of potential in Liel,” he said.
“I said a couple of weeks back I felt for him a little bit because we were playing him a lot for a young guy. I just felt we needed a bit of a spell to give him a bit of a rest and I think it has helped him enormously.
“I thought the front three were great against Ferencvaros, it’s great they get goals as that is what they love to do, but their ability to link has been excellent.
“Liel has more to give. He’s learning all of the time. He’s one of those who wants to learn and he does.
“His decision making, we’re trying to give him some guidance and you saw that with the first goal in Hungary. We got the counter attack and he slowed himself down. He knew Kyogo would be in a good area and he found him.
“To be honest, when I signed him, I thought he was one we would ease into proceedings with James (Forrest) out there having experience.
“But he’s one of those guys we threw in there, sink or swim, and most of them have had a decent swim up until now.
“It’s pleasing to see, but you still have to factor in that he’s a young guy and we will take our time with him to let him fulfil his potential.
“They understand we are making decisions that are best for them and for the team and he felt himself his performances had dipped a level. I felt it was fatigue more than anything else because he plays with such energy that,
Their stocks have risen and that is because of the platform we give them
unless he feels 100 per cent, it affects his game.
“We had an inkling if we gave him a couple of games to re-energise, we could get him back in there and he’d be flying again. And he has been.”
Celtic travel to Dundee tomorrow for their last match before the next international break, and Postecoglou is
hoping to end a sequence of games since the last national team fixtures on a high after a satisfying upturn in results.
Postecoglou’s side have won six and drawn one of their last seven fixtures in all competitions, and the Celtic manager acknowledges it has been a critical period in terms of maintaining his ambitions for his team this season.
“Yeah, it has been,” he said. “After last week [the draw against Livingston], people forgot that!
“We’ve had a good period and it was a critical period for us because we had a tough time the period before with injuries and inconsistent results.
“If we were going to make an impact in Europe and at home, we were going to have to get
a run of results together and performances.
“We’ve done that so far, but we have to finish it off away at Dundee and it’ll be difficult.
“If we can play our football as we have been and keep improving, then it will be a good period for us.
“That was the challenge for us. I’ve got to temper it by saying I knew this period would be better because we are just more settled, have more options and a bit more depth. We are still not where we want to be, but there is a bit more depth.
“It was a chaotic first eight weeks of the season for us, but I knew we could get some consistency through this period with just being settled and I think it has.”