THE league may not technically be on the line when the teams step out at Celtic Park tomorrow, but everyone knows that if Celtic can avoid defeat to Rangers, the title race is over bar the shouting. There may be a fair old bit of that, too.
But while some managers may try to shelter their players from the expectation that will be on them amid the maelstrom in the East End of Glasgow tomorrow, Ange Postecoglou has urged his Celtic players to embrace the occasion and the challenge, and seize their opportunity.
Frankly, if they can’t handle the pressure and the demands to win games of such magnitude, Postecoglou’s feeling is they have no business wearing a Celtic jersey in the first place.
“They understand it,” Postecoglou said. “For the most part, while it’s a first season for many at the club, they have already been in several key games already.
“We’ve felt both success and failure, so they know about the different feelings and the impact if you win or you don’t. Every time you go through that experience, it makes you stronger.
“And this group of players, I’ve been really keen to expose them as much as possible and not shield them from it.
“That’s because the one thing you know is that, whatever happens this year, the expectations will be the same when it starts next season; that we try to win every tournament, every competition and every game.
“If the players have had those experiences and understood them, it is going to hold them in better stead than trying to shield or protect them from something that is part of this football club; that you are expected to play in big games and win them.
“That’s the beginning and end of it.”
So, having laid that expectation out in such stark terms, it is no surprise to hear that playing for the draw that would still see Celtic with not only one hand, but nine fingers on the Premiership trophy, is not the way Postecoglou will be approaching the game.
“You could, but we wouldn’t because that just hasn’t been our approach all year,” he said.
“Another club might take a different approach and I’d understand that because a draw would be a positive result with only three games to go.
“But it just hasn’t been the way we have gone about it this year, it’s just not our nature or the kind of team we want to be.
“Particularly at home, against any opposition, I can’t imagine there would ever be a scenario where we would ever not go for three points. That’s what our supporters would expect and it’s our expectation.
“We know it is going to be difficult, but at the same time, the reason we are sitting in the position we are now is because, home and away, we go into every game trying to be the team trying to get three points.”
Most of the chat around personnel prior to this game has been from the blue half of the city, with debate around how strong a team Rangers manager should put out with his team needing snookers in the league, and a Europa League semi-final second leg to come against RB Leipzig on Thursday night.
Postecoglou on the other hand is enjoying one of those ‘nice headaches’ that managers like to talk about, as with Josip Juranovic the only major absentee, his main task is deciding which of his in-form players to go with.
Does he start Giorgos Giakoumakis or Kyogo through the middle, for instance? Tom Rogic or Matt O’Riley in behind the frontman?
“I’ve got an idea,” he said. “If I didn’t, we’d be in a bit of trouble!
“We are in a good position, but we had periods where we didn’t have Kyogo or Giakoumakis. Or we didn’t have Rogic or O’Riley. So all of these things are in the context of the present and, right now, we are in a really strong position.
“We have a strong squad. All guys ready to make an impact from the start or coming on. It’s been a real strength for us since January, we’ve been able to be strong all the way through.
“We have players who can impact either starting or coming on and it’s really helped in our training because every day our levels we have quality footballers competing in every position.”
Celtic Park will of course be rocking once more prior and during the game, as it is every time Rangers come calling.
If the Celtic players want the old place to be shaking to its foundations once more though, as it was back in February when they blew their old rivals off their patch in a 3-0 win, Postecoglou has told his men they must do their bit.
“I’m sure there will be a fantastic atmosphere again and our supporters will create something special for us, but all of these things depend on the outcome,” he said. “We have to play our part.
“With that night at Celtic Park, our performance and the way we played added to the atmosphere.
“You need a combination of both. The off field atmosphere has to be matched by energy and intensity on the field, so for it to be another special day, we have to play our part.”
