Ange Postecoglou has blamed the ridiculous fixture list for going into Sunday’s match against Motherwell without a striker in his squad.
The fitness of Giorgos Giakoumakis remains something of a mystery with the former VVV Venlo striker last surfacing away to Dundee on November 7.
Having missed a close season due to his switch from the J-League to SPFL Kyogo Furuhashi needed carefully nursed through until January 2 when Celtic enjoy a 20 day break.
Albian Ajeti was given a start last night against Real Betis alongside three debutants in Liam Shaw, Osaze Urhoghide and Liam Scales as Postecoglou sent out a clear signal that there were more important fixtures to navigate through.
In the 28th minute Kyogo replaced Ajeti, 43 minutes later he hobbled off the park to be replaced by Ewan Henderson but for many Celtic fans the remainder of the Europa League tie against Real Betis became a side show.
Against Hearts Jota left the pitch holding his hamstring, on Sunday at Dundee United James Forrest was kept in at half-time after feeling his hamstring tighten.
Picking up on BT Sport’s post-match interview with Postecoglou the Daily Record reports the Australian saying:
We’ll see. Yeah… it’s not good. We’ll wait and see what the assessment is, obviously I would have preferred to give Kyogo a bit less time tonight.
And also with Albian getting a hamstring, we’re going through a rough trough which never seems to end. But we’ll cope.
We’ve had a few injuries but the amount of games we’re playing is ridiculous to be fair. We don’t have the squad to cope with it at the moment and luckily tonight we got some 90 minutes into guys that will help us moving forward.
90 minutes for Liam Scales and Osaze Urhoghide is little compensation for the striker situation today. In 2016 Brendan Rodgers navigated his squad through nine fixtures, signing off with a 2-1 win at Ibrox on December 31. That run involved eight wins and a draw away to Manchester City in the Champions League.
Between Europa League matches and Sunday SPFL matches Celtic haven’t done any media conferences this season, ahead of the game against Motherwell there is only one item of news that fans are looking out for even if it is likely to be bleak news.
If Ange is so wrong, he wouldn’t keep getting jobs and being successful. Did he have a lot of injuries every week in Japan? Maybe Celtic are just painfully out of shape compared to Japan.
Who are these keyboard moron warriors taking a pop at Ange as if they were top class managers ,hindsight is a great thing ,it’s so called fans like this who will drive the manager out eventually.
Er, 4 points fewer than Lennon after 16 games. Out of UCL in July and Europa in November. Highest goals lost in Europa. Can’t beat Livingston twice. And a style of play that leaves half the team out with injuries. Utter arrogance to bring on Kyogo last night. Probably cost us the league and league Cup if Jota and Kyogo are out til Feb. Not a keyboard warrior, but not blinkered cheerleader either
Then you are an anorak. Great with stats. There is a human side to football. Biggest rebuild in recent memory. Fans want to see us win every week, with our available better players. Anything less is defrauding the paying customer. Wins in Europe generate money, improve the coefficient, therefore less qualifying rounds to play. He could have got injured in any game at anytime. You don’t buy a Lamborghini and park it on your driveway!
Well Pete ,time will tell if he’s any better than Lennon,I think he is, remember Lenny didn’t have to rebuild an entire team ,he inherited a good team and blew whereas Ange is starting from scratch ,I’m not a cheerleader but I’m not a doom monger either,I agree with you about the amount of injuries but I’m not sure it’s caused by the style of football we play.any way Pete we will see what happens
You sound quite depressed Pete. I am the complete opposite.
Life is for living. Nothing is perfect. Moaning and looking for all that is bad instead of concentrating on what is good destroys the soul and leads you into a bad place. I believe that we are on the up and up. I’m a cheery wee bugger and I am on Ange’s and Celtic’s side. If Ange had not put Kyogo on yesterday, the self-same people should be complaining that he should have. The benefit of hind-site is not available when one makes a decision like that.