Chris Sutton’s World Cup warning to Ange Postecoglou

Chris Sutton has warned Ange Postecoglou that there is a heavy mental impact from playing at the World Cup Finals.

Celtic had three players involved in losing Last 16 ties this week while Josip Juranovic is in no mind for returning as he follows up a win over Brazil by preparing for a semi-final against Argentina.

The bulk of Ange Postecoglou’s squad have been training in Portugal this week but three players have gone from the high of qualifying from the group stage to the low of effectively being booted out of the World Cup.

In Qatar the show is continuing but for Cameron Carter-Vickers, Aaron Mooy and Daizen Maeda it is back to Scotland in the dark of winter to pick up on their club commitment.

Warning Postecoglou of some side effects, Sutton explains in the Daily Record:

In his Daily Record column Sutton explains:

To my mind, there will also be a mental aspect to it. This is the greatest show in the game and the individuals who are currently or have been involved in Qatar will have gone through huge emotional highs and some extreme lows.

Simply going from that straight back into training and onto domestic matches immediately will be a challenge for some boys. Some will sail through it. Others may take time to adjust back into the real world of bread of butter club work.

Three of the World Cup players will rejoin Celtic this week with Postecoglou having to assess if they can be involved at Aberdeen or whether the home matches against Livingston and St Johnstone are more realistic targets for their return to club action.