ANGE Postecoglou last night admitted Celtic are in good shape heading into the cinch Premiership match against Rangers at Parkhead on Saturday after recording their sixth consecutive victory oiver Ross County.
Postecoglou made no fewer than nine changes to his side for the Premier Sports Cup match against County in Dingwall – and his team still eased to a comfortable 4-1 triumph.
The Scottish champions can go five points clear of their city rivals in the league table if they win the first Old Firm game of the 2022/23 campaign this weekend.
Their Greek-Australian coach is happy with how Celtic are performing going into the meeting with Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men.
“I’m really pleased,” he said. “Credit to the boys. We made nine changes tonight and that can easily affect the fluency and cohesion of the team, but these boys are training really hard every day, they’re prepared for their opportunity and they showed that today.
“I thought it was outstanding. To win 4-1 away from home, and the performance as well, was a credit to the players. I don’t think we had anyone who didn’t perform to the levels we want them to and that we aspire to.
“For a lot of the guys it was their first start, and they could have easily have used this game as an excuse to build into the season, but I thought nobody out there looked like they hadn’t been playing which is a credit to them.”
Postecoglou added: “I thought we started the game really strongly, built good tempo and intensity in our game.
“To play the kind of football we want, if you rely on a certain core of players eventually they will break down. Now we are in a position where we don’t need to do that.
"I can rotate the team and make sure that we’ve got everyone in really good condition. Our form is good, we’re improving every game.
“Yes, our form has been good. We have been improving every game. It’s been a little bit of an unusual start for us with one game a week. We were using the first weeks of pre-season to replicate two games a week scenario.
“The boys were working really hard and you could see that in our performances in the first two or three games of the season where we weren’t probably as sharp as we had been. I think every week we are improving and it’s been positive so far. Now we look to the next challenge and make sure we are ready for it.”
Asked about facing Motherwell at Fir Park in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals next month, he said: “Another away game? It would be nice to be at home at some point!
“It’s another good challenge for us, the most important thing is that we’re still in it. In a cup game, that’s the ultimate aim, and it’s pleasing for me that we did that in a convincing way.”
Meanwhile, Postecoglou admitted that he is hopeful that winger Mikey Johnston will leave Celtic on loan and get some much-needed game time.
He said: “We are still working on Mikey to get him somewhere. There are a couple of possibilities for him.
“It’s a lot less hectic than last year. It was 10 minutes to midnight we signed Cameron Carter-Vickers, that was a more stressful time.
“This window has been good for us. We knew what we wanted to do in terms of business, and we’ve moved at the right times and got most of our guys nice and early.
“From my perspective looking at our objectives going into this window, we’ve come out pretty healthy.”
Stephen Welsh limped off in the second-half of the Ross County game, but Postecoglou is hopeful the centre half isn’t seriously injured. “He had a bit of a niggle in his groin in the first half,” he said. “We will assess him tomorrow.”
