Ange Postecoglou reckons Hoops fans have a new hero in Oh Hyeon-gyu after the Korean ace helped fire the Parkhead men a step closer to the title.
The £2.5m former Suwon Bluewings star managed to break Hibs fierce resistance with just eight minutes to go at Parkhead before Sead Haksabanovic sealed the 3-1 win. Oh has had to bide his time on the bench since his January switch but Postecoglou is convinced he’s got a cracker on his hands.
He said: “Like all strikers, they love scoring goals, particularly goals of that nature. But he is going to be a fantastic player for us, mate. I have introduced him really slowly, he is adjusting to life on and off the field, but I watch him in training every day and he is a handful. He has got a real presence about him physically but also he's got a great touch and he is just so hungry for success.
“It will do him the world of good because he is going away with the national team so it's always good for him to get that confidence. He still has still got a lot of work to do, a lot of improving, he's going okay.
“The most important thing is guys don't just come on to play for 20-30 minutes, it's about going on and making an impact. The way the game was going, playing him and Kyogo up front would help us, because every time the ball arrived in the box he is going to be a presence in there. That's what he proved.”
Postecoglou was thrilled to bag another three points and maintain Celtic’s commanding nine point lead in the Premiership with nine games to go. But he admitted it was a chaotic afternoon in Glasgow with Hibs boss Lee Johnston blasting officials for a serious of controversial calls with three penalties and a first half red card for Elie Youan.
Postecoglou said: “I'm well aware of Lee's feelings, I heard them for 95-100 minutes, mate, I can well imagine. They were decisions, mate, all of them, like every decision. For me it's more about the disruption it gives to the game. We had 15 minutes of extra-time purely on the back of officials' disruption.
“That doesn't really excite me that much but decisions are decisions, mate, and we have just got to cop them whether they are good or bad. It just felt like a bit of a chaotic game . There was a lot going on on and off the field.
“Especially first half we just couldn't get any sort of rhythm or fluency and impose ourselves on the game like we wanted to. Having said that we created some great chances. But I thought second half we handled it a lot better, we stayed calm, kept our composure, made an impact when we needed to and guys coming on helped us get the result.
“To be fair to the lads we haven't had one of those days so they don't know what that is. For them it's just about playing our football until the final whistle and sticking to our principles.”
Postecoglou is facing an injury sweat over Reo Hatate after the midfielder limped off but he was thrilled to go into the international break in pole position in the Premiership. He said: “I’m not really sure about Reo, I haven't spoken to the medical team but I am hoping it's nothing too serious. He just felt a twinge so having a couple of weeks without games hopefully helps in terms of his recovery.
“We have been on a pretty good run. We kind of want to keep going. But ultimately we factored this break into our planning.
“The stretch between the World Cup and now we knew would be important. We knew we would have a lot of good weeks of training in there without any games and we used that really well.
“Now it is about using these two weeks to get ready for the run in.”
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