Ange Postecoglou insists Celtic’s bad run of post-title form is firmly on him. And the Parkhead boss confirmed a Scottish Cup Final crock fear over injured winger Sead Haksabanovic after he limped off at Easter Road,.
Postecoglou was left stunned at a shock ending which saw his side crash to Hibs. Celtic were 2-1 up and heading for victory when Daizen Maeda’s red card turned the tide. Scott Bain also lost a dreadful goal to Hibs’ ace Elie Youan during the late home blitz which has left the champions without a win in three since sealing the flag.
Postecoglou says that down to him altering the side regularly and making big changes. He said: “I thought up until the sending-off, we were in a good position and looking to finish strong. The red card comes and it is sort of chaos from then on. Cancelled reds, penalties, mistakes, it just seemed the game got really out of control in that last 20 or 25 minutes. That sort of hurt us in terms of the outcome.
“Everyone is making assessments on what is happening right now. That’s fine. Most of that is on me, to be honest. I am the one making five or six line-up changes every week. That’s hurting the side and there’s no doubt about that, but I’m doing it for a reason and that has affected our level of performance. That’s the decisions I’ve made. In the last three weeks, they haven’t been to be benefit of the team. We still have a big game to play in the cup final and then we will come back stronger again.”
Bain’s nightmare ruined a decent comeback after 18 months out of the team and Postecoglou extended his alterations issue as he said: “It is disappointing for him and that is the life of a goalkeeper as he was having a good game up until that point. It is just one of those moments and I don’t know when the last time he played.
“These guys are out there and in many respects it is not fair on them as I am putting these guys in and that would be okay if there were one or two changes. But I am making five or six changes a game and that is hard on the guys coming in. I totally get that. It is unfortunate for him because it was looking like a good night for him.”
Haksabanovic limped out during the first period and, asked about Hampden, Postecoglou said: “We’ll see. Again it’s unfortunate. We build a squad to tackle all competitions, but we haven’t had any midweek games and some of the guys just haven’t played enough.
“I thought Haksabanovic started the game really well bearing in mind that he hasn’t played a lot of football. That’s the danger of throwing guys in I guess. It can happen. I haven’t spoken to him and I’ll wait and see what the medical team says but with the cup final 10 days away it could be tough for him.”
Maeda replaced Haksabanovic, but collected two yellow cards having committed fouls after his first. Postecoglou said: “I would never criticise him, the effort he puts in is just outstanding. He doesn’t go down as easily as others. That’s a credit to him. He’ll learn from that. He’s a strong lad who stays on his feet when he gets punished.”
Postecoglou, meanwhile, admits he’s not surprised at interest in assistant John Kennedy. The Celtic boss’ right-hand man is on the list of potential candidates for Hearts and he said: “When the time is right he’ll make an outstanding manager.”
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