ANGE’S AGONY
McGregor urges trust in boss as Hearts wound Celts late on
CAPTAIN Callum McGregor last night urged supporters not to panic after Celtic slumped to defeat on the opening night of the Premiership season at Tynecastle.
A last-minute header from John Souttar settled the game in Hearts’ favour after Celtic full-back Tony Ralston had equalised Gary Mackay-Steven’s opener.
Although new manager Ange Postecoglou has also seen his team eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers, McGregor insists the players and support need to trust in the Australian boss’s process as he rebuilds and remoulds the squad.
‘At a club like Celtic the expectation is to win and win well so it’s right everybody starts asking questions when you have two defeats in a row,’ said McGregor.
‘That’s something we need to learn off the back of last season, that it can snowball into a bigger situation than what it actually is.
‘So we need to stay calm, keep working. The manager has come in, he wants us to do things slightly differently, and we have to trust that process to get us where we want to be.
‘It’s important we don’t drop our
heads and go into our shell and start to panic a little bit.
‘We know where we are, we know where we want to get to, and that requires hard work, concentration and bravery.’
Postecoglou, meanwhile, demanded more from his attacking players.
With striker Odsonne Edouard now goalless in three competitive games, and wingers Liel Abada and James Forrest struggling to produce a cutting edge at Tynecastle, the Aussie admits he needs more.
He said: ‘Our front third play wasn’t great all night to be fair, we got in some good areas and had very little reward.
‘Maybe it’s lack of cohesion. I have changed things around, I have played Ryan (Christie) as a left winger, I have played James there today.
‘At some point the responsibility comes to those players to take the opportunities we are providing for them.’
Postecoglou handed a starting debut to defender Carl Starfelt and also introduced £4.6million forward Kyogo Furuhashi from the bench but admitted he expects at least two new reinforcements within the week.
He continued: ‘Look, I’m hopeful that over the next week we bring in at least another couple.
‘Carl was okay. He literally had one training session with us yesterday and I threw him in because the two young centrebacks had played 120 minutes on Wednesday night.
‘I thought he grew into the game but he will be better once he gets a couple of weeks under his belt.’
In sharp contrast, Hearts boss Robbie Neilson was thrilled by the way his team approached their first league assignment of the new season.
He said: ‘We had five-and-a-half thousand fans here and it sounded like 20,000.
‘It’s a brilliant start for us but it’s just a start, we have just emphasised that to the players.’
Neilson also paid tribute to match-winner Souttar, who has endured a succession of knee and Achilles injuries.
He added: ‘I’m delighted for them all but especially John because he has had a hard couple of years.
‘Our job now is to try and keep pushing him and keep him as fit as we can. There is no doubt when John is fully fit he is a top player, both attacking wise and defensively.’
For Souttar, the occasion was full of emotion.
He said: ‘It was amazing, considering last season I was sitting in the stand for the first game of the season and didn’t really know where my career was going.
‘I’ve taken the time out to bulk up, get stronger and quicker, and hopefully that will make me a better defender.
‘I’d much rather have been playing, of course, but with hindsight I might look back and see that as a positive.’