ANGE Postecoglou has admitted that Celtic’s punishing schedule is taking a toll on his players both physically and mentally – but insisted that Kyogo Furuhashi still poses a serious threat to opposition defences despite netting just once in his last eight games.
Postecoglou will be without first team regulars Jota, Callum McGregor, Carl Starfelt, David Turnbull and Stephen Welsh for the cinch Premiership match against Hibernian at Parkhead today due to injuries.
The Greek-Australian, who will have Israeli winger Liel Abada available for selection this afternoon, believes the lack of recovery time after midweek Champions League outings makes his charges more susceptible to picking up knocks.
Asked if he felt that Celtic were vulnerable after big European games, he said: “I don’t think so. But there is a challenge there because they are high quality games and they do take it out of players emotionally and physically.
“We are trying to balance that by making sure that we rotate and making sure players have a clear mindset. We also don’t ever change our approach and I think that makes it easier in terms of preparing for Champions League games and then league games. We take a consistent approach and hopefully that helps the players going from one competition to the other.
“But all clubs (in Europe) seem to have had some significant injuries because there is no real time to recover between game. I guess that is a real challenge to all the clubs who are involved because in normal seasons you get a little bit of time to recover between games.
“The Champions League does take out a bit more out of you than league games. Our physical output and the numbers we churn out in the tournament are consistently high. If you don’t get that time to recover then you run the risk of injuries.
“Last year seemed to be a lot of muscle injuries, this year seems to be collision injuries. I have been involved long enough to know that these are just part of football. But, like everyone else, we just have to deal with it.”
However, Postecoglou is adamant that his Japanese striker Furuhashi, who passed up a gilt-edged first-half scoring opportunity in the Champions League loss to RB Leipzig on Tuesday night, does not need to be rested.
The £4.6m signing scored six goals in the opening four games of the 2022/23 campaign and claimed a hat-trick in the 9-0 rout of Dundee United at Tannadice in August - but since then he has only netted once against Motherwell.
“I don’t think people can be too harsh on him,” his manager said. “Last week he set up Jota for a fantastic goal that he created (against Leipzig in Germany).
“Champions League goals are hard to come by, but I don’t think he has been any less threatening. He is still getting into good positions and he has been unlucky on a couple of occasions. I still think he really causes teams problems.
“Domestically we have had to juggle him a little bit. People forget he was in great form and then hurt his shoulder which kept him out for a couple of weeks so he was a little bit disrupted. He is still a player who does very well for us.”
Hibs lost 1-0 to Dundee United at Tannadice on Tuesday night – but before that Lee Johnson’s side had defeated Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Ross County and Motherwell to move into third place in the league table.
Postecoglou has been impressed by the Easter Road club in recent weeks and knows that Celtic will have to be at their best to maintain his unbeaten record at Parkhead in domestic competitions.
“They are in pretty good form coming here,” he said. “Lee has come in and he has changed the squad a fair bit and you can see they are playing the kind of football he wants them to play.
“They are slowly finding their way in terms of the kind of football team they want to be and that has been evidenced in their results. I know they lost up at Tannadice midweek, but I don’t think there was too much in that one. We know to expect a tough game.
“It is always a good challenge against them and we have had some close games against them in my time here. But our home form has been very good for the year and a bit so we just need to make sure that we pay close attention to the game.”
