Jurgen Klopp once called his Liverpool team Mentality Monsters. That’s what Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic stars have been for him. Ruthless attitudes. Coping with absences whilst gaining results in must-win games. No let up. It’s been done at this key point of a season before by the Aussie’s squad and now their challenge is to do it all over again.
There are 13 games for them in 43 days across three competitions before the World Cup and it’s time to once more display that insatiable mentality that’s got them where they are now under the boss. You cannot win cups and titles in this next pivotal period. But being off the pace or making too many mistakes can certainly take them away from you. It’ll shape what comes next.
In the 13 games from this day in 2021, Celtic won eight and drew one of nine in the Premiership, booked a spot in the Premier Sports Cup Final and defeated Ferencvaros home and away in Europe. The only reverse came in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen and even that was a good performance in defeat. Another powerful run of that nature is now required.
Postecoglou will have started assembling his group back together from the international break and he might not like some of the things that he sees. Some boys, such as Cameron Carter Vickers and Carl Starfelt, didn’t even go away with their countries because they were injured. Others like Giorgos Giakoumakis have sustained knocks while they were on duty and Postecoglou is going to have some absences.
Some of the lads will come back flying. Callum McGregor, for example, must be buzzing after Scotland’s performances. It would be remiss of me not to make mention of the Celtic captain for his displays for his country. It actually surprised me during the week to find out that, at the age of 29, McGregor only has 49 caps at this stage of his career.
I say only. Forty-nine caps is still a big number. It’s 48 more than I got. But, when you look at the way he performs on that stage, he’s all class. McGregor is an outstanding footballer and he brings a measure of composure and authority to the middle of the park that few in the squad can. He’s now becoming as invaluable to Steve Clarke as he is to Postecoglou and that’s saying something.
McGregor will get right back to business and he’ll lead the way. Others might not be in his form or even fitness, but there’s no excuses. In fairness to him, if there’s one manager who doesn’t make any, it’s Postecoglou. That attitude rubs off on his players and it has to keep doing so. Celtic were in far worse shape as a squad last season at this stage and they managed to navigate their way through the same pivotal spell.
Now they have a stronger squad and the manager has more choices due to the work in the two windows of the transfer market since. While it’s a punishing programme for Celtic, it is the same for Rangers in terms of the title race and, in terms of the Champions League, most leagues are cramming fixtures into this period because they are having to deal with the unprecedented World Cup Finals date.
We Never Stop is the mantra from Postecoglou, but it should be that we need to get restarted after that slip at St Mirren prior to the international matches. I’ve said on these pages Celtic could be excused an off-day and a defeat. Their fine start to the term and thumping Old Firm success had put them into a place where they could afford a setback.
Maybe that was part of the problem in Paisley. I certainly don’t think, if Postecoglou could pick a team again for the game, he would make as many changes as he did. But perhaps the lack of edge that brought about the lacklustre opening to the match from which Celtic did not recover was also more a factor.
Let’s face it, pretty much since he walked in the door, the manager’s team had been playing on the edge. They’ve been, by and large, going into every game knowing they couldn’t afford to make a mistake, especially in the Premiership. They were six points behind at this stage last season. Even then, every outing was a must win and they played like it.
Nothing was left out there, Celtic fired into everything on the domestic front and, who knows, that might just be the way they need to be. They might be off the top of the table by the time they kick off against Motherwell, so it’s back to being on the edge. During this period last season, Celtic managed those back-to-back triumphs over Ferencvaros which gave them a chance to get through their Europa League group.
It didn’t happen in the end, but now up the levels in the Champions League against RB Leipzig, it’s a similar set of circumstances. Home and away matches which could make or break their chances of progression to the knockout phase of the competition. Celtic currently hold the Premier Sports Cup and Postecoglou admits it was such an important one for him to win to fuel the belief last season.
They will want to retain, so going to Motherwell for a last-eight tie means that it’s not just the title race and the Champions League that must hold attention. There’s no margins for error at Celtic. As I said, St Mirren was excused because of what had gone before, but the next domestic slip won’t be glossed over so readily if it comes soon.
Of course, this is what you want. These are the games that you want to be involved in and the situations you want to be part of. I loved them. High pressure. Win and you’re flying, lose and there are consequences. The Celtic players showed last year that they could handle those high-stakes pressures and strains. Now they are back in the same place. And the message from the manager will be simple. Do it all again and set yourself up for more success.
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