A tale of the unexpected unfolded for Celtic at St Mirren on Sunday but Peter Grant expects more storyline jaw droppers as this season unfolds. The former Hoops star admits it may have come like a bolt from the blue as the Buddies inflicted a first league defeat in 364 days for the champions but he’s also convinced Ange Postecoglou’s tinkering with his starting line-up wasn’t to blame.
No less than six alterations by the Australian from the Champions League draw with Shakhtar Donetsk triggered mumblings of complacency coming his way, but Grant believes the upset in Paisley was the football gods at play. He said: “Any time Celtic lose this season, it’s going to be unexpected. You hear the so-called criticism and people having a pop but it shows the standard they have set.
“For any Celtic player who didn’t know, football can make you king of the castle one minute and then kick you on the backside the next. Every team will lose games, sometimes it’s more unexpected as it’s a Celtic side which has been brushing opposition aside week on week. St Mirren have been doing well, they are on a good run but I don’t expect Celtic to lose many games this season because of the quality they have, not just in their first XI but as a squad.
“How does Ange Postecoglou balance that, players can train as much as they want but they need to play games. So what is the manager supposed to do? The only way he can do that is to play these players in games. I guarantee that St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson would have read the team-lines and thought it was a very strong Celtic side.
“Celtic have been so dominant and that’s why this defeat hits people with such surprise. But the reminder is there every day with Celtic that they need to perform at their best. I’ve been a Celtic player when you just feel that nothing is going to stop you. I had team-mates where it didn’t matter, it was always about how many goals they believed we were going to win by.”
Grant is also adamant the exertions from Celtic’s Champions League efforts will remain a factor in the months ahead and after St Mirren brought their domestic run of success to a shuddering halt, the former midfield enforcer insists the law of averages ensure they were always going to be brought back down to earth.
He said: “Everyone talks about coming back from a European game to play at the weekend and it is a factor as it’s slightly different. The manager has been 100-per-cent, everything has been going his way and he’s made the right decisions. The biggest thing about playing for Celtic is that if you don’t play well or get the right result people will always question certain things.
“As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing to be questioned as it was always going to happen sometime that they would lose a league game. Everyone has a bad day at the office, we have all had them, some more than others. Celtic have a squad packed with quality players and the manager is right to change things if he believes that’s the right thing to do at a particular time.
“Some players are fresh, some need games and some are just back from Europe and there’s little time to recover. The travelling involved, all of the different factors which come with being asked to play in Europe in midweek and then in the league on a at the weekend, it has an impact. When Celtic go to Paisley on Sunday, everyone just expects everything to be perfect but football doesn’t work that way.”
The likes of Stephen Welsh, Aaron Mooy, Anthony Ralston and Stephen Welsh were all recalled for the St Mirren defeat and Grant insists Postecoglou can’t be accused of fielding a weakened side as even with rotation there’s no such thing.
He said: “Players are going out against St Mirren and playing together for possibly the first time and some of them haven’t featured for a while. Every league game Celtic play is important, they don’t play trial games. Postecoglou isn’t thinking to himself it’s going to be an easy game so I’ll just put this guy or that guy in.
“He doesn’t think like that, he believes every player he picks is going to produce. This is a very strong squad which is more than capable of delivering top performances and on Sunday they didn’t get the performance they were looking for. That wasn’t due to any lack of effort, determination or commitment or quality, it’s because that day they just didn’t play well enough. It happens.”
Grant is convinced there have already been below-par Celtic performances this season which have been camouflaged by the win and backed Postecoglou to continue to get it right on every front during this campaign.
He said: “No team which goes in against Celtic will be looking forward to it as they have been magnificent. The manager has said himself that there have been league games which haven’t been so great. If you look at the Aberdeen and Hearts games there were questions asked even though they won.
“Celtic know they are entering a period where it’s weekend game and then travel for Champions League duty and then weekend game again. Postecoglou knew this period has been coming and he’s been trying to prepare his team for that. That includes giving people a game who’ve not been playing. If he put the same team out tomorrow everyone would still expect Celtic to win. That’s no disrespect to St Mirren, but it was still a very strong side which Celtic put out.
“They didn’t play with as much energy as they have done in previous games and the manager has said that. The bottom line is that every opponent plays a percentage up when they face Celtic and on Sunday, Celtic didn’t reach the levels they have shown. It’s a blip and the players will be disappointed as they would have wanted to show the manager they should be first choice. On Sunday that didn’t happen and sometimes you get the result which goes with that.”
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