ANGE POSTECOGLOU says he knew the mistake that cost Celtic in RB Leipzig was coming as his side had veered away from their football, and that they put goalkeeper Joe Hart under unnecessary pressure by playing too safe.
The Celtic manager defended his keeper after his errant pass had led to RB Leipzig’s second goal in the 3-1 defeat, but criticised his outfield players for retreating into their shells after Jota had pulled them level on the night, and for playing negative passes.
That was the mindset that he feels led to the hosts gaining the upper hand in what had been a keenly contested encounter, and what ultimately caused Hart’s costly error.
‘’It’s not about the mistake,” Postecoglou said. “It’s about before then we had a lot of the ball but were just passing it back to him. You are doing what you think is safe but it’s not really who we are.
“In the first half we played balls that were on and sometimes we’d make a mistake and that was okay because we were trying to be positive. I just felt after we scored we almost settled for that and kept passing the ball back to him.
“A mistake is a mistake. It’s not about that it’s about what the lead up to that was. Are we playing our football? Are we showing the same sort endeavour as we were before?
“I could see it coming. If it wasn’t Joe making the mistake, it would have been somebody else. When you get into survival mode, the best you are going to do is survive.
“When you come away from home in a game like this, when you’ve fought so hard to claw your way back into it, you don’t want to survive. You want to sustain a positive mindset. That’s how you affect the opposition and make them uncomfortable.
“It’s just experience – players are people you know. At some point they’ll switch into some kind of safety mode. But you can’t play safe at this level. If you play for survival then that’s all you are going to get. And to survive, you aren’t really getting anywhere.
“It’s something we’ll learn from.”
