CELTS WON’T FEEL SURFACE TENSION
Postecoglou not fan of artificial pitches but backs team to deal with challenge
THE principles never change but sometimes the footwear must. Another solid week’s training ground work has seen Ange Postecoglou switch a few sessions to the artificial surface at Lennoxtown in order to gear up for today’s visit to Kilmarnock.
A soccer purist, it’s unsurprising to hear that the Australian is no fan of artificial grass.
Yet, he doesn’t castigate Killie, or indeed Premiership rivals Livingston, for their decisions to maintain an all-weather surface.
An advocate of a slick, highintensity playing style, Postecoglou knows the Killie pitch will make it harder for his attackers, but he understands the financial imperative behind their continued use in Scotland’s top flight.
He said: ‘I’ve experienced them in the past. When I was national team boss, we had to go to countries where that was all they had.
‘You understand the reasoning behind it, but do I like them? No. I think they change the game.
‘Do I think the top leagues should have them? Preferably not, but I understand why they are there and we have just got to deal with them.
‘There’s enough evidence from around the world. Some nations went that way, the Dutch certainly did, and they are reverting back to grass pitches because it’s just more of a natural game.’
Postecoglou’s side endured mixed fortunes on Livi’s plastic last term, losing an early-season match before breaking a long-standing duck with a March win that felt like a huge moment en route to the title.
‘As much the artificial pitches try to replicate what happens on a grass pitch, it’s a different game,’ he adds. ‘That’s my preference. I don’t like them. I don’t think it’s as good a spectacle for the supporters, which is really the ultimate business we are in.
‘But I can understand why clubs have them. There are financial considerations that, thankfully, our club doesn’t have to deal with. Others do, and that’s why they make those decisions.’
Postecoglou has already confirmed that midfielder Reo Hatate will sit out for another week on account of the surface and he may decide to freshen up elsewhere in his team.
First-choice striker Kyogo Furuhashi got off the mark at Ross County last weekend, so the manager may decide to rest a second Japanese player and give Giorgos Giakoumakis a run in attack.
Given Carl Starfelt’s recent hamstring injury, it would be a major surprise to see the Swede play his first match in ten weeks today, so the likelihood is that new signing Moritz Jenz will reprise the partnership he struck up with Cameron Carter-Vickers on his debut last weekend.
The big defender made an impact with a goal in Dingwall but admits the fast physicality of the County attackers was something of a culture shock.
He insists he will be ready for similar from Killie today, even with the added complication of the underfoot conditions.
‘It’s obviously a different surface, more sticky and difficult,’ says Jenz, the German defender who has signed on loan from French side Lorient. ‘Obviously, we don’t play on these surfaces every week, so it is quite unusual for the team.
‘It’s not the same as grass where the ball runs smoother when it’s wet. It’s more bobbly because of the granules on the field.
‘At the end of the day, we need to be focused, be clean in our actions and then we have a good chance.
‘That’s the way I want to play, to step into midfield and pick the passes to be very high to regain the ball when we lose it.’
Celtic have actually been playing with a third, auxiliary centre-back in the shape of goalkeeper Joe Hart who has been asked to take a higher starting position this season.
Once written off at Manchester City on the apparent basis that Pep Guardiola felt he was not good enough with the ball at his feet, Hart has thrown himself into the sweeper/keeper role.
Now 35, the former England No 1 has enjoyed a new lease of life since moving to Glasgow as a free agent last year.
‘I wouldn’t have signed him if I didn’t think he could play the role the way I want to,’ says Postecoglou. ‘Ultimately, the main role for a goalkeeper is to make sure he keeps the ball out of the net and I have always tried to sign good goalkeepers.
‘Beyond that, we want to try to be a team that play out from the back but I don’t want my goalkeeper to be the playmaker.
‘If we are doing our job correctly and setting up the team in the right way, hopefully the passes he has to make are the simplest.
‘It’s more about embracing the role and the attitude that the individual has more than the skill set because there’s not a goalkeeper on the planet who can’t pass the ball five yards.
‘The funny thing is most of them are asked to ping balls 55 yards on a dime.’
Although he’d inherited a readymade captain in Callum McGregor last summer, Hart was snapped up at a time when Celtic badly needed leaders.
Postecoglou knew he had personality and the ability to play for Celtic — the question was whether he was willing to throw himself into a new challenge.
‘Joe is an outstanding goalkeeper with an outstanding career and I thought he still had many outstanding years in front of him,’ says the Celtic boss.
‘So it was more about Joe the person. Did he want to embrace the new challenge? Did he think he could keep improving?
‘He’s been brilliant at that. He’s come in every day and he wants to learn and embrace what we are doing. He had every right to question everything I did because he’s worked with some of the best managers in the world. He’s never done that. He’s tried to understand the direction I want to take us in and bought into our football’
Much quieter, yet still crucial in terms of Celtic’s continuity is James Forrest, the one-club winger who signed a lengthy contract extension earlier this year despite falling down the pecking order.
Big goals such as his winner in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final and indeed his clinching strike in the 3-1 win at Livingston helped persuade Postecoglou that Forrest was worth keeping around.
‘James has been at this club for a very long time and if you asked him if he’s ever felt he was guaranteed a spot in this team, I’d be very surprised’ says Postecoglou.
‘Yeah, it’s a challenge at the moment but when his opportunity inevitably comes along, he will be ready for it.’