He might not do glass ceilings, but Ange Postecoglou most certainly believes in sweet spots
It’s the big Aussie’s firm belief that, at some point, he’ll hit upon one of them as Celtic ’s manager. And, when he does, it’ll make all of Europe sit up and take notice. The Champions League might have gotten away from him at this, his first attempt. But a victory against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday will at least fire his side back into contention for a third spot finish and the safety net of cushioned fall into the Europa League.
And, in the meantime, Postecoglou will get on with plotting for the day when his philosophy all falls perfectly into place on the European stage. “I don’t wear that as a badge of honour,” he said when it was suggested his side has come agonisingly close to handing out some bloody noses throughout the campaign so far.
He continued: “I want to win games, I don’t like losing. I get disappointed. But I set us a certain task in this group to play a certain way.
“If I said that and what you guys saw was something different there would be cause for questioning our whole approach. But we said ‘we want to take the game to the opposition, we want to play attacking football, we want to create opportunities’ – and I think we’ve done that.
“We’ve fallen short in executing in that final third but there are fine margins in that. We’ve hit the post a number of times, we’ve missed some really good opportunities that you’d think we’d be able to take. So we have fallen short.
“But what I do take pride in is the fact that the players have been brave enough to go out there against the best opposition, not fear conceding goals against very good opposition and potentially have some heavy defeats.
“I take strength from that and I believe if we keep doing it over a number of years you’ll hit a sweet spot somewhere, where it all comes together and you get the success.”
Success right now would come from an extended run in UEFA’s second tier. Just a fortnight ago his nemesis across the city admitted Rangers would be finding life far less stressful right now if they were parachuted back into the Europa League.
Postecoglou doesn’t go along with Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s assessment. He said: “I don’t know about that. I think all European football is a challenge. It’s a real balancing act playing in Europe and domestic football – particularly if you want to challenge in both.
“But it’s important for us to try and qualify for a couple of reasons – one, we couldn’t get our primary target and our second target is to play European football beyond January. It’s still a possibility, so why would we dismiss that?
“And, two, every time you do play in Europe there’s always a learning there, especially for our players. For most of them this is their first real crack at European football and they’re doing it at Champions League level.
"They’re not being eased into it. They’ve been thrown in. They’ll be better footballers for it and the more we can stay in there the better. Ultimately, we’re not going to dismiss goals because maybe they’re a bit hard.”
Postecoglou’s theory is simple enough. If Celtic should find their sweet spot in that competition then there really might not be any glass ceiling to stop them. The trouble is, he has no way of knowing when that golden moment might arrive.
He went on: “You just don’t know. That’s the difficulty. Some of the biggest, richest clubs in the world can’t win this competition. So they’re still waiting for their sweet spot.
“The Champions League, every year, is a challenge. Next year, we could have three phenomenal sides in our group and it’s just as hard, if not harder. So you just don’t know. I believe if you consistently get there and keep banging on the door, at some point it will happen.
“It could happen next year, it could happen in three or four years but I think there is more chance of it happening, by the laws of probability, if you take that approach.”
It was put to Postecoglou that, the closer Celtic get, the more likely his team will be dismantled and his best players picked off. He doesn’t buy that one either.
He said: “Not necessarily because you’ve still got the template. If our players move on, our job then is to replace them with better versions. We brought them here for a reason and they have moved on for a reason. So we know how that works.
“When we bring in the next one, can we get a better version of that player? If anything, it may even help you transform it even quicker. If we’ve got players who move on because they have done fantastically well for us, that’s a helluva template. And if I’m getting a better version of him here that’s going to mean our progress will be accelerated.”
And, after 14 goals in their last three league games, Postecoglou is seeing progress almost everywhere he looks. He went on: “I said to the players, if we maintained the levels we had against Leipzig – physically and in tempo – in the league, we’ll destroy teams. That’s what has happened.”
But it’s cracking the code in the Champions League which really drives his focus. It’s what brought him here in the first place. He nodded: “Spot on, yeah. I’ve done it at a World Cup, and just about every other FIFA tournament. I’ve tested myself in foreign countries.
“You want to test those theories, because they are all theories until you go out there. But I have a real belief that it will stack up, both in the short term and the medium to long term. I love that aspect and that is why I take that approach.”
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