‘We were well off it’ /Postecoglou frustrated as Celtic lose in Sydney
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou refused to consider the patchwork nature of the starting line-up he selected could offer any mitigation for the desperate nature of his team’s display in their 2-1 loss to Sydney FC.
A clearly irked Postecoglou made no bones about how unacceptable the defeat in the Sydney Cup opener was as he faced the Celtic TV cameras.
It was put to him that some players had gone into the encounter on the back of a glut of football in recent weeks while others - such as the deeply unimpressive Alexandro Bernabei, Oliver Abildgaard and Yosuke Ideguchi had had very little game-time.
But, as he batted that away, Postecoglou targeted an entirely different showing in the clash with Everton on Sunday in the club’s second outing in a competition billed as his homecoming. Thus far, an unsatisfactory one.
“Irrespective of whether boys have been playing or haven’t been playing, we were well off it and nowhere near the level we need to be,”
Celtic defender Anthony Ralston confessed that expected standards failed to be met by Ange Postecoglou’s men in the 2-1 loss to Sydney FC, and the nature of the competition does not make that fact any more palatable.
Celtic will be faced with a rescue mission in their encounter with Everton on Sunday to avoid their trek over to their manager’s homeland, Australia, to compete in the Sydney Super Cup turning out any anything but the celebratory excursion it was meant to be. And the Scotland right-back is frustrated over his team finding themselves in such a position, especially for the Celtic supporters - both homebased and those who made the journey from Scotland among the estimated 20,000 crowd in the 42,000-capacity Allianz Stadium.
“We hold high standards here,” said Ralston. “Friendly, cup final, it doesn’t matter, we have the same intention going into every game. Our intent was to come here and play as we do in the league. And if we lost in the league we would be disappointed.
“But the only positive you can really take is that it was good to get 90 minutes in. And that’s about it. I just felt as a collective we weren’t on it, and there is no excuse for that. We let them play through the middle too easily and in hindsight didn’t take our chances. I’m sure we will analyse it and see where we went wrong.
“We wanted to put on a show. Not just for the fans who live here and get up at three in the morning to watch us when there are league games, but also for the travelling fans here. It is disappointing from that aspect but it was nice to see the turnout here and get the chance to perform in front of fans that rarely get to see us.
It was nice to see them and for them to see us in person.
“It is special to be able to see the fanbase that we have over here and globally. You see the fanbase over in Glasgow, it is the best in the world. And you come over here and see how strong the fanbase is around the world, it is special. We carry a responsibility [through that], friendlies, league games or whatever, they come and see us and it is important we give back to them.”