Too much of a burden- Ange on Celtic’s fixture fatigue

Ahead of tonight’s match against RB Leipzig, Ange Postecoglou will have to take a decision on the readyiness of Jota to play.

The winger was replaced at half-time on Saturday against St Johnstone, the second of 13 matches that Celtic will play over a 44 day period ahead of the World Cup break.

Carl Starfelt and Callum McGregor are already ruled out of tonight’s match with fitness and fatigue likely to become key issues as this period of fixtures continues.

Celtic’s style of play regularly sees them with 70% or more possession in domestic matches with that way of playing requiring players to be at full pelt.

Discussing the fixture issue, Postecoglou told The Sun:

We have 13 games, and then you look at the level of games that you have got to play. We played Wednesday night in Leipzig and got home on Thursday at 3am, then we played again at lunchtime on Saturday. I think it is too much of a burden.

If you want top-level performances, you need, as in any other profession, the people who are the most important, the players, to be able to recover if you want to maintain performances.

I think we have 13 games in 44 days. It’s impossible for us, or for any other club for that matter, to maintain a level of performance with that workload.

Around 6.30pm tonight the Celtic team will be announced with all eyes on whether or not Jota is in the side.

With Hibs, Motherwell and Hearts coming up domestically before the Champions League tie at home to Shakhtar Donetsk there is nothing to be gained from trying to play anyone less than 100% match fit.

Next week’s League Cup tie at Motherwell looks like a match where some key players can be given a breather, yesterday it was reported that David Turnbull and Yosuke Ideguchi were back in full training.