Ange Postecoglou has ordered his Celtic players to blank their Scottish Cup Final thoughts and instead focus on getting their mojo back.
The Hoops face a historic clash with Inverness at Hampden on June 3 as they chase a world-record breaking eighth domestic Treble. But they warmed up for that date with destiny with another less than convincing display as they followed up last week’s Old Firm defeat to Rangers by drawing 2-2 with St Mirren.
Postecoglou was frustrated with his players’ half-hearted approach to winning the ball back and urged them to make correcting that their only concern in the two week run-up to the Caley Thistle clash. He said: “If they’re thinking about the cup final now, that’s a problem. Because when you start thinking too far ahead, you miss what’s happening now. We can’t have players thinking about performing on that day. Perform today, perform next week and then focus on the final.
“That’s vital or what happened today will happen again. It’ll be a struggle again and we’ll be fortunate. The football we’ve played this year. It’s been pretty compelling, at a very high level for a very long time.
“But you can’t expect to go off a certain part of it and expect it to roll on just because we’ve reached this point. It’s human nature and I understand it but my job is to remind the lads that, if you keep doing that, the struggle continues. They know how to change it, by committing to all sides of our game. If we do that, we’ll play the football we want to.”
Curtis Main struck twice for Stephen Robinson’s Buddies either side of Kyogo Furuhashi’s 31st goal of the season to put Saints on the verge of becoming the only Scottish side to beat the Hoops twice this season. But skipper Callum McGregor left the visitors deflated with his late equaliser.
Postecoglou added: “It is fair to say it was a tough game. I thought St Mirren worked hard and did what they had to do. We didn’t really control the game as well as we usually do.
“Mainly because we didn’t work as hard on the defensive side of the game. It is fair to say in the last couple of weeks we’ve gone off that a bit.
"That doesn’t allow us to be relentless in the way we play. And let’s the opportunity for the opposition to get up the park and gives them a chance to recover. When we are right on it, we keep the opposition under pressure.”
But Postecoglou was reluctant to be overly harsh on his side after another dead rubber disappointment following their incredible achievements through the meaningful stretches of the campaign. He said: “These guys are champions. They’ve won the title. When the heavyweight champion of the world lifts the belt, he doesn’t have to have won every round.
“I have got to be really careful with maybe the words I use in this context. This group of players have been outstanding. The amount of goals, more than anything, has been incredible. There is always this thing inside of me that I don’t want them to waste a moment of their careers or a game.
“They have done their job and won the title for the second year in a row and they have Champions League football to look forward to. We haven’t lost at home for two years, so it is not me being critical of this group. Far from it.
“I just want them to enjoy their football and make every game count. Not just tick them off until we get to the cup final.
"Why not play some good football for the next couple of games and enjoy it and make sure our fans enjoy it? We play in a certain way that requires a full commitment to every aspect of the game and we’ve just gone off it.”
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