ANGE Postecoglou has stressed that it will take his new signing Hyeongyu Oh time to settle at Celtic and start to have a major influence on matches.
But Postecoglou predicted that making his debut for the Parkhead club in the 2-0 win over Dundee United at Tannadice on Sunday will have raised both the morale and confidence of his £2.5m January transfer window acquisition.
The South Korean internationalist, who joined from K-League club Suwon Samsung last week, replaced Kyogo Furuhashi with eight minutes of regulation time remaining on Tayside.
The 21-year-old failed to add to the second-half goals that Jota and Aaron Mooy netted and open his account in Scotland - but his manager was pleased he got on the park and is confident he will make his mark in due course.
“He’s been fine,” he said. “It’s been a big week for him and he’s only a young lad. It is going to take him a few weeks to get settled properly, but you can see already he’s a guy who wants to make an impact. He’s determined to make an impact and I’m sure he will.
“If you are ever going to make a debut for a team, this is the team you want to do it for because they make you feel invincible right from the start. I’m sure he didn’t sleep much on Sunday night, but we got back to training and are getting ready for Wednesday.”
Speaking when Oh signed for Celtic last week, Postecoglou stressed hte forward was physically ready to contribute to the Scottish champions' pursuit of silverware.
“He’s a young guy but very mature and wants to make an impact, as seen in the way he’s tackled his career so far," he said.
"He’s made strong choices, he’s done his military service, he worked hard to keep his team up last year as a young striker, he made the national team squad, and now he’s made a decision to try and crack it over here.
'He’s been training and was doing pre-season with his club for the last three weeks, so he’s in good physical condition but he hasn’t had a game since November.'
“It’s a big week for him with the travel and the signing process, so we will see how he goes but I am keen to get him involved as soon as possible, so we will see if that’s this weekend or midweek.
“People know I love my strikers that work hard defensively and he certainly does that, but he also adds a physical presence in the front third with his link-up and in the box.
“He’s still relatively inexperienced but looking at what he’s done in his career I reckon he will be a quick learner and he can contribute straight away for us.”
