What happens on the pitch is main concern for Postecoglou

REFEREEING controversies, government handling of Covid, the religious and political elements of life inside the furnace of Glasgow’s great footballing rivalry.

Neil Lennon never shirked from going in two-footed on all of those thorny subjects and more during his spells in charge of Celtic. In stark contrast, his successor Ange Postecoglou has made a definite point of keeping them very much at arm’s length.

The 56-year-old Australian made a point of not wading in on Kyogo Furuhashi’s questionable winning goal against Hearts nor Dundee United midfielder Calum Butcher’s wild challenge on David Turnbull that was only upgraded to a red after the SFA became involved.

Likewise, he is letting those above him get on with contacting Hampden to ask why refereeing chief Crawford Allan felt the need to speak out about incidents in that recent clash with Hearts on national radio.

Postecoglou famously shut down questions about the ticket allocations for next weekend’s Premier Sports Cup final against Hibs as well and insists there is a reason why he is keen to dodge issues he does not believe are part of his brief — because they are distractions that could pull him away from doing the key elements of his job properly.

‘I have never seen myself as an epidemiologist or archaeologist or any kind of ologist,’ he said. ‘I’m a pretty simple guy in terms of knowing what I need to know. ‘At the same time, I understand I am a spokesman for the club in as much as what I say not just in the media, but when I am out and about meeting people in public. ‘Every time I open my mouth, I am representing this football club and I want make sure that what I say and my actions reflect the values of the club I’m at and my own values. Sometimes, that means I don’t answer questions about things that I believe are answered by other people with more expertise than me.

‘I’m comfortable with that. I’m not insecure with the fact my expertise lies in certain areas and happy to absolve the responsibility for other matters to other people. ‘I cottoned on early in my managerial career there are certain things that were in my control and what I wanted to do.

‘For the most part, I didn’t get diverted or distracted from that because that is my ultimate responsibility. I want to make sure what I present stays as close to the values and the intent that I believe will make us successful.

‘In any walk of life, if you get distracted or taken away from that focus and try and control things you know that ultimately you are never going to have an effect on, I think you absolve yourself of your responsibility.

‘I’ve seen it often as I’ve been managing for a very long time. I’ve seen people who take a different approach and really get riled up about refereeing decisions or things outwith their control and I think, ultimately, my responsibility rests on what happens between the white lines on the turf.

‘I want to be sure that, every day, my players, my staff and everyone involved with the club knows that is where I am putting my attention.’

Right now, there is plenty of attention on Celtic’s injury problems and particularly those involving muscle complaints.

Jota, Kyogo Furuhashi, Albian Ajeti and James Forrest have all been nursing hamstring problems this week. Tom Rogic and Carl Starfelt have also had lay-offs this season as a result of muscle injuries.

Postecoglou reiterated his view that it is an inevitable by-product of his demands in training and games, but believes it will settle when the players’ bodies become accustomed to what is being asked of them.

‘It’s not a concern. It’s obviously something we want to get on top of but it’s not new to me either.’ he said. ‘The way we play, I kind of understand that the beginnings are always difficult.

‘We play differently and train differently and it takes players time to adjust to that.

‘Along the way, we obviously pay a price. People forget a lot of these guys didn’t do a pre-season with us and came in late.

‘The one thing I’ve never done is compromise the football team we want to be because we are not quite ready to be there. I’d rather keep going at the pace we are going and it means we’ll have some casualties along the way.

‘We’ll get better at making sure our players don’t pick up these kind of injuries, although the fixture scheduling makes that even more challenging.’