Jota loves life with pass masters
Portuguese talks up his time at Parkhead so far, where new boss has Celtic topping charts
WHATEVER you want to call it, be it “The Celtic Way” or “Angeball”, the swashbuckling style of football adopted by Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic side since his arrival has them keeping some heady company.
According to The CIES Football Observatory, who collate data from 40 leagues all over the world, there is not another team on the planet who are moving the ball as much as Celtic, who pipped Dinamo Zagreb, Ajax, Bayern Munich and Manchester City to the accolade.
Celtic have made 735 passes with an average length of 17.5 metres, moving the ball an average of 12.8km between themselves per match. That is a full kilometre ahead of their nearest challengers in the table.
Of course, as Postecoglou himself alluded to last week ahead of Celtic’s defeat to
Bayer Leverkusen, there has to be substance to go along with the style that his team are playing with, but in these early stages of his tenure, it is a clear indicator of how wholeheartedly his players have bought into his playing philosophy.
Indeed, it goes further than that. They love it. Just ask Jota, who has flourished under Postecoglou’s guidance since his arrival on loan from Benfica in the summer.
The Portuguese winger has gone as far as to compare Postecoglou’s style to that of the all-conquering Barcelona sides guided by Pep Guardiola, though whether they can achieve even a sliver of the success which was the end result of all those mesmerising passing patterns weaved across the Camp Nou remains to be seen.
“It’s been great,” Jota told the Celtic View podcast.
“Ange has really good ideas, his philosophy of the game is something I’ve been looking for all these years.
“We just want to keep the ball, create the space, see the opportunities coming and just finish. I think we are doing it quite well, and I’m just enjoying the game.
“Everyone knows what to do inside the pitch, and I think we are getting to know each other better day by day. So, things are going good.”
According to Jota, there have already been signs that there will be proof in the pudding under Postecoglou for Celtic, with an early-season Europa League test showing that there is indeed more than bravado to his manager’s football-at-allcosts viewpoint. So much so, it has been his favourite game for the club so far, even though it ultimately ended in defeat.
“People might not understand this, but I would have to say the Betis game in Seville,” he said.
“It was one of our best games. We lost 4-3, but if people look closely, we played a really good game, we created chances, it was not easy for Betis to play against us.
“This is the European stage, so I would have to pick one Europa League game, and that one, even though we lost, it was a really nice game. It showed a bit of our personality. We were losing, but we wanted to keep on playing our game.
“That’s what big teams with big personality want to do, and we want to do that all year.”
If that might not have been an obvious choice for Jota’s favourite game of his impressive if short career at Celtic so far, his favourite goal is another wild-card selection.
Forget about the crucial winner at Pittodrie in October to give Celtic their first away win since February. Never mind the recent deliciously executed double at Dens Park, or a storming finish for Celtic’s second at the end of a sweeping counter attack against Ferencvaros. His emphatic strike to round off another brilliant break against Bayer Leverkusen? No chance.
Of his eight goals, it is his
goal against Raith Rovers that opened his account which holds the most special place in his heart.
“I have to say, in terms of feeling, the first one inside Celtic Park,” he said. “It’s different to score at Celtic Park.
“But I think all of the goals are special. I remember the game [against Dundee] where I scored two goals and celebrated in front of the fans, which was really good.”
So, he loves the football. He is scoring goals. Perhaps the only thing he does not enjoy about Scotland – apart from the Irn Bru he was asked to sample in this interview – is being constantly badgered about how long he is going to stay here.
As he has intimated previously, Jota is happy to live in the moment, but if Celtic fans are looking for signs of how settled the 22-year-old is, the way he speaks about his team-mates hints that he would not necessarily be opposed to the idea of staying.
“The first guy I met was [Giorgios] Giakoumakis, because we were in Paris doing some medical exams, so I met him before I came to Celtic,” he said. “He was the first guy I had the opportunity to speak to about the club, to speak about the adventure we were going on.
“Then, when I came to Celtic all of the lads were good and speaking to me all the time, saying ‘If you need something just tell me’. I’m good friends with everyone.”