No mate, I don’t lie to you and I don’t lie to the players- Ange fires right back at reporter

Even after the best part of 18 months of interviewing him it seems that some elements of the Scottish media are still in the dark about the way that Ange Postecoglou insists his team play the game.

Celtic fans have loved the attacking drive that has been put in place where two central defenders, backed by an advanced goalkeeper, bring the ball out from the back with eight players all geared towards creating chances.

Despite the misgivings of many that approach has remained in place in the Champions League where the hoops have created more than 10 chances per game against some of the top sides on the continent.

Gabriel Antoniazzi has been a regular on Postecoglou’s media calls, more than once the Celtic boss has had to explain to the Radio Clyde reporter that what he says is actually what he means.

On Sunday Celtic are away to Livingston, in some ways the most awkward fixture on the calendar with the home side playing a very direct physical game which often spooks visitors to their plastic pitch.

Celtic were caught out last September but returned in February to win 3-1. When Antoniazzi tried to build David Martindale’s side up into some Super-Human physical challenge Postecoglou had to deliver another reminder that with 60% plus of possession he expects his side to impose themselves on the match- as they do in every SPFL fixture.

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After Postecoglou replied about Livingston’s physical strength the reporter wanted another go at basically the same question.

GA: Is that the message that you give to your players, just continue to play your football because, what you tell us, continue to play yourselves up, you never really change or do you have to give them, a little bit of added words, tell them it’s going to be a bit more of a battle away to Livingston?

AP: No mate, I don’t lie to you and I don’t lie to the players. What I say is what I say is we have to play our football because within our football all of those things are there.

Whatever the challenge is we’re not going to overcome it by changing our approach, that’s not going to work for us. What works for us, we have some basic fundamentals that we want to learn and that is working hard and trying to dominate the game in possession and be really aggressive without the ball.

When we do those things, irrespective of the opposition home or away we know that we’re a tough team to beat. That’s what we’ve got to deliver at the weekend.