Ridiculous- Ange deflects from his Kyogo decision
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.