LITTLE did anyone associated with Celtic think that the absence of early European qualifiers would provide something of a headache for the squad, but in terms of getting the players up to match speed quickly, replacing them was a conundrum that Ange Postecoglou faced this summer.
Thankfully, it is one that the Celtic manager is satisfied that he solved, with the matches against Rapid Vienna at the weekend and then the win over Banik Ostrava last night on the occasion of their centenary celebration competitive in all but name.
Indeed, if it hadn’t been for the raft of second half substitutions, you might have struggled to notice that the 4-2 win in the Czech Republic last night was a friendly at all.
The Mestsky Stadion was near to its 15,000 capacity, and the locals didn’t half put on a show, with various TIFO displays and pyrotechnics greeting the players as they emerged into a baking Ostrava evening.
There were some early fireworks from the hosts on the pitch too, as they took advantage of some sloppiness in defence from Celtic to take the lead. Postecoglou’s men hit back though, and played some lovely stuff once they clicked into gear.
In the end, a more than deserved win was a fitting end to what has been a fruitful training camp in Austria and the Czech Republic overall, and while the Celtic manager is still fully aware of the rust that has to be shaken off before the real competitive action begins, he is pleased with the foundational work that has been done over these past 10 days.
“It was in our thinking to bring ourselves to this base rather than other areas where teams have camps,” Postecoglou said.
“We wanted to play teams in stadiums in front of crowds.
“Without any competitive games and even if you are playing against quality opposition and it is at a training ground then I just think it loses an edge.
“These two games have been perfect in trying to replicate match conditions as much as you possibly can in terms of a friendly. I thought both were useful.”
It would be fair to say that Celtic’s attacking thrust has pleased Postecoglou most, with his side scoring 14 goals in the three matches over the camp when you include the 7-0 thumping of third-tier side Wiener Viktoria that kicked things off.
He was keen though not to get too carried away, and was irked a little by sloppiness in their passing at times over the trio of fixtures.
“It has been okay,” he said. “Again today the stuff was really good but there were times when it was a bit sloppy. Particularly at the start with our passing and throughout our game at different times.
“Having said that we are working really hard in training and that really takes the edge off the players and they don’t feel as sharp as they need to. We worked our way through it and our good stuff was really good.”
Both Kyogo and Matt O’Riley have scored in each of the last two games, while Giorgos Giakoumakis got off the mark with a spectacular effort against Banik, and he is pleased that his team’s attacking instincts seem to still be intact despite the short lay-off.
“We are not short of goals for sure,” he said. “We weren’t last year and we don’t want to be this year again.
“We don’t want to rely on one or two, we want multiple goal threats. We know our strikers can score, like they did today, and our wide players get into good positions to score.
“Our midfielders need to get into the dangerous areas as well, it is stuff we are continually working on to try and improve.
“For us, it is a major strength of ours. We want to be difficult to stop and it is not just about stopping one because we can get them from multiple areas.”
Meanwhile, Postecoglou hopes that Lubo Moravcik got a kick out of watching the show his team put on in Ostrava, with the Celtic legend taking the chance to see his former team in the flesh.
“Was he here? I wasn’t aware of that,” he said.
“He was a great player, a fantastic player for this football club
“I didn’t know he was here but it’s great that he was, hopefully he got a bit of a buzz seeing his old team.”
