ANGE POSTECOGLOU praised his five-star Celtic team after their demolition of Kilmarnock, but told his players that they still have to move up another level if they want to enjoy a successful season.
The Celtic manager was delighted by the way his men handled the tricky conditions at Rugby Park, continuing to play his brand of football on the bone-dry artificial pitch in the searing heat of Ayrshire.
But even though he was satisfied with the Celtic performance, he says there will be more to come from his team as their campaign progresses
“There has to be,” Postecoglou said. “It’s only game three of a long season. We still have a lot of improvement in us.
“It was good. It was pleasing. We spoke about it before the game, it wasn’t the easiest of conditions for our boys to play football both in terms of the temperature and the pitch. To the players’ credit they kept their discipline and focus and committed to our style of football.
“There were plenty of [potential] excuses for us to just look at this game as ‘three points and get up the road’ but we still wanted to put on a performance and I was pleased that the players did.
“They had a singular focus. [The pitch] still does affect us and it did affect us at times with our fluency, and stumbling a little bit because the natural mechanics of a turf pitch aren’t there.
“But again, you can either use that as a clutch to adjust how we play or we can stick to what we do and to the players’ credit they did that.”
Postecoglou also enjoyed the fact his men continued to press for goals and tried to entertain the large travelling support even at three goals to the good at half-time.
“It looked like they have enjoyed themselves even prior to the game, and rightly so!” he said.
“It’s always good because this is a game where it can turn into a bit of an ugly game, you win it and it’s not memorable in any way. But we don’t want to miss opportunities to give our fans some special moments and today was one of those days.
“Some of our goals really pleased our fans and for us it’s a really important message in terms of us sticking to our football.”
