ANGE Postecoglou has successfully instilled an all-for-one and one-for all ethos at Celtic since being appointed manager last summer and it shows both on and off the park.
During games, the strikers and wingers track back and help out with defensive duties whenever the team is out of possession and the full-backs get upfield and complement attacks when they have the ball as well. There is, too, a real togetherness in the squad outside of match days.
So it has been no great surprise that nobody has blamed the forwards for the failings up front which ended their hopes of reaching the Champions League knockout rounds for a fourth time on Tuesday.
The Scottish champions have acquitted themselves well in their Group F encounters with Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk and RB Leipzig. However, they have only netted twice in four outings and have picked up just a single point as a result of their lack of ruthlessness in the final third.
Yet, Cameron Carter-Vickers, the centre half who has donned the captain’s armband in the absence of the injured Callum McGregor, believes that everyone in the Celtic side, not just Kyogo Furuhashi and Giorgos Giakoumakis, must pitch in with goals. He is convinced their domestic and European results will improve if they do.
“I don’t think it’s something we should worry about too much,” he said as he looked ahead to the cinch Premiership match against Hibernian at Parkhead this afternoon.
“As long as we are still creating chances eventually it will turn and we will start putting them into the back of the net.
“It is pretty normal throughout the course of a season. You are not going to go for nine or ten months when you are scoring three, four, five goals every game. It is pretty normal and not too much to worry about.”
Carter-Vickers added: “It is the responsibility of the team to create the chances and score goals. It is not just on the strikers. Us defenders have to pop up with goals from set pieces and what have you.
“That is the way we play – we all attack together and we all defend together. When we are defending we press from the front and the strikers lead that. It is the same up front.”
A place in the last 16 of the Champions League may be out of reach for Celtic following their 2-0 defeat to Liepzig in the East End on Tuesday night.
But Carter-Vickers, the United States internationalist who joined the Glasgow club in a £6m transfer from Spurs in the summer so he could test himself against the continental elite, feels his side can be proud of how they have fared since returning to the group stages.
He is determined to help Postecoglou’s team beat Shakhtar at home later this month, draw with or defeat Real away and secure third place in Group F and a spot in the Europa League preliminary knockout round.
“You can definitely take positives from the performance against Leipzig,” he said. “Obviously overall it was disappointing because we want to win games, you don’t want to lose them. But I think if you look back at the game you will see that we played very good football in large parts of it and created chances to score.
“You always want to aspire to the highest level you can reach and that is obviously the Champions League. I think we have been close, there have been fine margins in a lot of the games in the competition so far.
“I don’t want to say we have been unlucky because it is a tournament where you have to take your chances. But there have been close games and we have shown we can kind of compete at that level.
“I personally wanted to play at the highest level possible. We have played some good teams with some great attacking players and it is great to go up against them and see how you match up with them.
“We can’t qualify for the knockout rounds of the Champions League, but the last two games are still big for us. We still want to pick up as many points from them as we can.”
Celtic have not been at their best in the Premiership matches they have played immediately after their Champions League group games against Shakhtar and Leipzig away; they were beaten by St Mirren in Paisley last month and needed an injury-time goal to overcome St Johnstone in Perth at the weekend.
But their stand-in skipper is relaxed about their form going into their meeting with Hibs, who have won four of their last five games, this afternoon.
“I am not sure that we are struggling to adapt to playing domestically after big European games in midweek,” he said. “Results wise, we are not winning by the margins that we were earlier, but I still think the performances in the last couple of league games have been pretty good.
“Throughout the course of the season you are not going to win by three or four every week. Sometimes it comes down to grinding out a result and in the last couple of league games we have done that.
“You learn pretty early on when you come here that every game is a must-win game at Celtic. Everyone in the squad knows that. We are aware that Hibs have been in pretty good form and we are going to have to perform as well as we can to get a result.”
Carter-Vickers is confident the loss of central midfielder McGregor, who is out until after the World Cup finals with a knee problem, will not damage their bid to retain the Premiership. He has been impressed by how well playmaker Matt O’Riley has fared since dropping back.
“He hasn’t played there that much, but he played the role really well against Leipzig, as he did against St Johnstone at the weekend to be fair,” he said. “On the ball, we know he has got quality. But his defensive work and positioning were really good on Tuesday night.
“He has taken to it very quickly. Matty is a very intelligent footballer. You could probably play him in a variety of positions and he would always perform well. He has got a good game understanding.
“But we are all out there talking to each other and trying to help each other. It can be hard to hear each other at times mind you!”
