POSTECOGLOU WON’T ALLOW SQUAD TO SHOW ANY SIGNS OF COMPLACENCY AGAINST DUNDEE

IF Dundee’s last visit to Parkhead felt like a breakthrough moment for Ange Postecoglou’s team, the Celtic manager is wary of this afternoon’s fixture.

Last August, James McPake’s newlypromoted team rolled into the east end of Glasgow and were buffeted by a hurricane as Kyogo Furuhashi inspired a 6-0 thrashing that set the standard for Celtic.

Today, the Dark Blues are back, this time under the charge of Mark McGhee. And although Postecoglou enjoyed another commanding win when his team won 4-2 at Dens, he will react to any signs of complacency in his squad. Thursday’s European defeat to Bodo/Glimt was Celtic’s first setback since Christmas and the Australian has heeded the warning that his team won’t always dictate the terms of engagement.

‘There is a danger of thinking that way,’ he admitted. ‘Dundee have just had a change of manager and usually when that happens there is a reaction from the players. I expect it to be tough, it may not be as open as the last time.

‘We just need to make sure we understand we got here not just from being free-flowing all the time, we have had to grit and grind our way through games.

‘There are lessons in everything you do and sometimes find out about yourselves as well.

‘We want to be a certain kind of team but that ability to be clinical in vital areas, in both boxes, sometimes gives you the outcome of games.’

Having managed almost exclusively on the other side of the world, Postecoglou has not previously encountered McGhee.

He said: ‘I haven’t come across Mark but obviously know of him, he has had a long managerial career and he is very experienced.’