There was a hint of the wounded animal about Celtic at the weekend as they came out roaring against Hibs like a side with a point to prove.
Ange Postecoglou set the tone. His ferocious defence of his squad’s performances in the Champions League, snapping back at being lumped in with the rest of the Scottish club’s who’d suffered in Europe. The Hoops boss got the response he wanted as his players tore into Hibs to banish an Euro blues and then fired a few more shots at the snipers after the final whistle.
It was the reaction Postecoglou wanted but it did leave some wondering who he was aiming his ire at. After all, there was no real savage criticism of Celtic after the Leipzig game. Sure there was analysis, and while there were references to a run of poor Scottish results, no one really chucked the Hoops result in with Rangers and Hearts shipping seven and five to Liverpool and Fiorentina.
It looked like a classic case of a managerial mind games to wind up his players – and it worked a treat. It didn’t go unnoticed by former Celt Mark McGhee. As a gaffer with nearly 1000 games in the dugout, the Hoops hero is known a master at finding ways to motivate players, sometimes by wild and wacky means.
And he said: “It’s funny. My son Archie is now playing rugby and they were playing against this fancy big school and his teacher came over and said he’d heard their boys saying they didn’t think this lot would beat their third team. He said, ‘We were so angry…’
“I just smiled. I’d bet they never said anything like that but the teacher was just using it as a method of winding them up!
“The vast majority of players are intelligent boys and you can’t kid them on too much. They are not 14 like Archie.
“They’ll think about what managers say, but there’s a lot to be said about finding ways to get that little bit more out of them. It might be the language you use or tricks that may or may not be true.
“I remember back in the days when you used to dial in to ClubCall to hear from managers and I knew none of my players would be calling in. I’ll tell them the opposition were saying this or that. You do what it takes.”
McGhee has been impressed with Postecoglou the coach but he knows management is far more than training ground drills, formations and tactics, especially at a club like Celtic where victory is a weekly demand. He said: “It’s just ways to get that bit of motivation.
“Celtic looked like a side out to prove a point at the weekend, whether they actually needed to or not. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not easy for a club like Celtic.
“I used to look for a hook. It might be a small thing and maybe not the most important, but it focuses the players minds.
“It might proving people wrong, whether it’s critics or rivals wrong. Whether it’s real or imagined, it doesn’t matter. It’s about keeping it fresh and authentic to find different ways to do it.
“There’s always the motivation to prove yourselves. It’s especially important at a club like Celtic. There are the big games like Europe and Rangers matches, Cup semi-finals and Finals and so on.
“But the league games are vitally important and it’s every week. Ange has been great at making sure the attitude is the same every single week and he gets that level of motivation, even when there might be a danger of complacency or the ease it’s more run of the mill.”
McGhee had a box of tricks in his dugout days during his spells with the likes of Reading, Leicester, Millwall, Motherwell and Aberdeen, at his time at Dundee last season. And it’s no surprise his old Dons gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson was a major influence when it came to this kind of stuff.
McGhee said: “You talk about the master. He was always one step ahead. I remember playing Morton and winning at half-time. As far as I was concerned I’d been brilliant and I sauntered in thinking I was going to get praise.
“He slaughtered me! I nearly didn’t go out for the second half if if wasn’t for Archie Knox talking me around.
“I was still raging at the end at being unfairly treated and I told the wife I wasn’t hanging around because the manager was a diddy. She said, ‘he might a diddy, but he’s taking us out for a Chinese meal tonight’! He’d got to her and first and already set it up.
“He totally disarmed you. You didn’t get much choice but to go but when I got there he put his arm around me and said, ‘the day I stop having a go at you is the day you’ve got a problem.”
McGhee’s old clubs meet in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday as Celts head to Motherwell. And he reckons Postecoglou’s mind games have worked to bury the Champions League pain and his players are ready to run through walls again after their gaffer fought their corner.
He said: “It wasn’t the result he wanted against Leipzig but he defended his team to the hilt. We don’t know if it was different in the dressing room but it’s like your children. You will defend them to anyone but you can criticise them.
“It’s about making sure they keep that confidence, belief, motivation, whatever it is, to succeed in the next game. At a place like Celtic you also have to do it with the supporters. You have to encourage and cajole them, it keeps them on board and motivated as well.
'When it works, all of a sudden the last result is forgotten and everyone is moving forward."
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