Ange Postecoglou’s incredible condemnation of Scottish football

Ange Postecoglou has revealed that he told his Celtic players to involve going in to tackles towards the end of Saturday’s Scottish Cup win over Alloa Athletic. 

It is an incredible admission and condemnation of the Scottish game with the SFA having to apply retrospective punishment with a charge for Mouhamed Niang’s brutal challenge on Yosuke Guchi. 

Callum McGregor and Liel Abada left the match due to injury with Stephen Welsh and Jota also on the receiving end of challenges that have no place in the professional game. 

Until yesterday Postecoglou went out of his way to avoid criticising match officials but Saturday’s toll has forced the hand of the Celtic boss. 

I will be honest, I told some of the lads towards the end of the game to just not to bother going into tackles and just look after themselves because I didn’t want any more injuries. 

I just didn’t feel there was control of that environment. Sometimes players are just reckless but that doesn’t mean it is excusable. 

We had a player who had a serious injury, there’s a couple of others who were lucky to escape from that and that is why I was disappointed with the way the night panned out. 

Postecoglou is left to pick up the pieces with Callum McGregor and Guchi on the injured list with Kyogo Furuhashi, Tom Rogic, David Turnbull and Daizen Maeda all unavailable. 

Matt Riley looks like he could straight into the side to face Hearts tomorrow night with the nightmare scenario being further injuries picked up tomorrow.