Wolves eye Ange after axing Lage
Individual errors make life tricky but Ange’s men find a way to win
CELTIC boss Ange Postecoglou is under consideration for the managerial vacancy at Wolves. The Molineux club sacked head coach Bruno Lage yesterday after a poor start to the season. A 2-0 defeat at West Ham on Saturday kept them in the relegation zone following just one win from their opening eight games. Wolves have a strong affinity towards Portuguese coaches and players, with Lage replacing compatriot Nuno Espirito Santo last year. But, according to a report by the Daily Telegraph last night, Postecoglou’s name is being ‘considered as an option’ due to his impressive work at Celtic. Wolves are said to recognise the difficulty in luring the Australian away from Parkhead, particularly given his team’s involvement in the Champions League. Celtic face RB Leipzig in Germany on Wednesday, with the Scottish champions looking to build on a draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in their last outing. Postecoglou was also linked with Brighton after Graham Potter’s exit to Chelsea, but it wasn’t a move that interested him. He is currently on a one-year rolling contract after taking the Celtic job in the summer of 2021. If English interest persists, the club will surely look to secure him on a longer-term deal. Last week, he told reporters in Australia he is content in Glasgow. Playing down links to Brighton and Leicester, he said: ‘It’s not really on my radar (moving to England). I’m at a massive football club. I’m living the dream and enjoying every minute of it.’
ON Friday, Celtic’s social media team put out a little piece of footage in which the players opened boxes containing their individual ratings for the newly released console game, FIFA 23.
Some appeared to be pretty chuffed with how their skills were judged for the purposes of online entertainment. Others did well to mask their disappointment.
A bit of harmless fun, such numbers are, of course, largely subjective. The enduring beauty of the real game is that you never truly know how individuals will perform from week to week.
Saturday’s victory over Motherwell was a case in point. After losing their first league match in almost a year to St Mirren prior to the international break, Celtic got back on the horse and over the line.
But this was absolutely no canter. Having spurned a string of chances to settle the issue, their supporters were left to nervously endure five minutes of stoppage time on account of Callum McGregor’s late red card.
Celtic were good enough to win the game but rarely great. Four weeks after wiping the floor with Rangers at the same venue, the wheels on the carousel aren’t moving quite so freely.
This was certainly better than that woeful show in Paisley yet still some way removed from their optimum level.
A month ago, that blistering display in the derby allowed Ange Postecoglou’s side to approach their opening Champions League match with Real Madrid with justifiable optimism. Wednesday’s game in Germany against RB Leipzig sees Celtic needing to recapture that form.
Motherwell deserve much credit for ensuring that the champions didn’t get things all their own way.
Stevie Hammell’s men were wise to Celtic’s liking for keeping the ball in perpetual motion. They set up to match Postecoglou’s side man for man and their boldness made a real game of it.
For all that, Celtic would have eased to victory had their display not been pockmarked by individual errors.
Forced to play a makeshift defensive partnership in Stephen Welsh and Moritz Jenz, few would have predicted the identity of the fall guy who gifted Motherwell an equaliser.
All that was needed for Josip Juranovic to tidy up Blair Spittal’s speculative chip into the box was a glance back towards Joe Hart.
For reasons only he could explain, the Croat opted to chest the ball back without first checking on his keeper’s positioning. It was a true howler from such a normally dependable player.
It changed the mood inside the stadium. Up until that point, Celtic had looked good for a comfortable victory.
They’d deservedly gone in front when McGregor released Jota down the left on 15 minutes. The Portuguese’s cross was met by the head of Matt O’Riley.
Liam Kelly blocked initially but could only watch as Kyogo Furuhashi steered the rebound home.
Leaning back in the box, McGregor missed a decent chance to add a second before Juranovic struck the underside of the bar with a free-kick. It felt like we’d seen this script before. Not so. Having also seen Reo Hatate (left) crack the woodwork, Hammell’s men arrived at the break with their hopes of pinching a point or three intact. The importance of maintaining their work rate and focus would have been stressed. How Dean Cornelius must have wished he’d carried out those instructions to the letter. Jota’s short corner on 64 minutes found Hatate in space but still with much work to do. The Motherwell attacker’s failure to close down the space invited the Japanese midfielder to move within shooting distance.
His curling strike, which fizzed into the far corner, was quite something yet still preventable.
Celtic were unable to put the game to bed, however. Furuhashi failed to hit the target after a fine cross by substitute Liel Abada. The former allowed Kelly to save when a dink over the advancing keeper’s head was the better option.
Despite a flurry of substitutions, Celtic looked a little leggy and anxious. Hatate’s woeful pass sent Ross Tierney racing away from McGregor towards goal.
The skipper had little complaint about the red card referee John Beaton produced, although the covering figure of Welsh made a decent case for a booking. An appeal will surely be submitted.
Hatate was Celtic’s best player throughout but that momentary lapse rather summed up a collective display which left much room for improvement.
‘It was good to score but then I made a mistake, so it was not good and it was not bad,’ he said. ‘I must learn from my mistake.’
Hatate still requires the help of a translator to get his words across in English but he cut out the middle man to explain what he said to his skipper at the end. ‘Sorry’.
Does he accept that mistakes will happen? ‘You will have to ask him (McGregor),’ Hatate replied.
Postecoglou can only hope that his side have flushed out all of their shortcomings.
Saturday’s game was the first of nine they face across three competitions in October.
Coming in the space of just seven days, the double-header with RB Leipzig was always going to largely define their Champions League run.
While Giorgos Giakoumakis looks like being available for the trip, Postecoglou isn’t minded to risk Cameron Carter-Vickers unless the defender himself feels 100 per cent ready to make his return.
Even in the American’s absence, though, Celtic can play much better. To get through this hectic month with their ambitions intact, they’ll have to.
‘It all depends on us,’ added Hatate. ‘We have to focus on each game and do our part.
‘The biggest challenge is playing our football. We will try as always to play our football.
‘Each game will be very tough. It is important to have a good recovery and performance for the team.
‘Each competition is important and makes you improve but I definitely can learn a lot by playing in the Champions League.
‘I am enjoying it and I am learning how to prepare myself. I will learn a lot and I enjoy that experience.’ CELTIC (4-2-3-1): Hart 6; Juranovic 5, Jenz 6, Welsh 6, Taylor 6; McGregor 6, Hatate 7 (Abildgaard 90); Jota 6 (Mooy 90), O’Riley 5 (Turnbull 65), Maeda 5 (Abada 65); Furuhashi 6 (Haksabanovic 80). Subs not used: Siegrist, Bernabei, Forrest, Ralston. Booked: Welsh. Sent off: McGregor. MOTHERWELL (4-2-3-1): Kelly 6; McGinn 6, Solholm 6, Lamie 6, Penney 6; Goss 5 (Morris 80), Maguire 6; Cornelius 5 (McKinstry 69), Spittal 7 (Tierney 80), Shields 5; Van Veen 6 (Moult 69). Subs not used: Oxborough, O’Donnell, Mugabi, Miller, Ross. Booked: Lamie, Penney, Shields, Van Veen. Man of the match: Reo Hatate.
Referee: John Beaton. Attendance: 58,407.