Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has spoken to the press after he oversaw Celtic's first point in the Champions League group stages for five years in midweek.
Despite it being somewhat overshadowed by the anti-monarchy, the Hoops conjured up a point in Warsaw against Shakhtar Donetsk and should have walked away with all three after missed chances from Daizen Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis. Nonetheless, they cannot rest on their laurels and a trip to Paisley beckons against St Mirren on Sunday afternoon.
With the club having lost just one of their games in all competitions all season, they are expected to beat Stephen Robinson's men, although the hosts have won three of their previous four games in the league so far. With debuts still to be awarded, rotation a key issue and, of course, a league title to be won, Postecoglou spoke to the press about current issues surrounding the club. Record Sport tells you what the Celtic gaffer said ahead of the trip to Paisley.
Current injury issues
"At this stage, everyone is fine from Wednesday night. No issues coming out from that. James McCarthy missed Wednesday night as he was ill, but he was back training today. Carl Starfelt is still out until after the international break. Everybody else should be OK," he started.
Sead Haksabanovic and Oliver Abildgaard
"We will have a look at it. It was good for Sead to start the game the other night, and we know he is not ready for 90 minutes and particularly the kind of football we want to play, but I just thought it was a good game for him because of his experience to come in and make an impact and he did well for the time he was on the pitch. He was never going to go beyond halfway or 50 minutes.
"We will see on the weekend as we have still got other players and other options in those areas who are also playing really well and in great form. In terms of Oliver, he is a bit different. He missed all the pre-season and came in late, and wasn't really training with the team. We just need to be patient with him, and we have two weeks of the international break where we can do some work with him, and I think you'll see more of him post-international break."
Keeping the same approach for all games
"A good challenge. A tough challenge as they have had a decent start to the season. It is always a difficult place to go to, and we are ready for it. Our league form has been really good and improved every week we have gone out there. Last week we had no league football, so we concentrated on the Champions League, and our focus is on making sure we go out there on Sunday and improve on our performances so far and keep our league form going.
"Not really. Not in terms of our approach. The games could potentially go in a different way than the way the Champions League games go but in terms of the underlying stuff, I would focus on the same things - dominating the game and dominating where the game is played and making sure we are aggressive in our approach. We took that into the Champions League game with us, and coming back to the League is no different. Whatever the sort of differences may be, the answers still lie with us concentrating on the basic fundamentals of how we want to play."
Making changes to the starting XI
"We have been kind of building towards something, and with last week's game getting called off, there was probably a rotation in there for some of the players who haven't played, and we would have come out of this first group of games with everyone getting some decent game time. That sort of never happened, but we know after the international break that we will have 10 or 11 games in the space of 34/35 days, so we are going to need everybody, and there is no doubt the team will change through that process.
"It is about having everybody ready, and we have begun that process. I think during the Ross County cup game, I made nine changes, and the level of that performance was excellent on the night and would probably have done something similar last weekend. We are still gearing up for what's ahead and what's ahead is that we are going to require a really strong squad of players, and we won't be able to rely upon 11 or 12 to get us through it."
Investigation on anti-monarchy banner
"They are opening an investigation, and I am not really sure what you expect me to say to that. We will wait and let the investigation unfold."
Respecting the minute's applause
"I have the same message to our fans that I always have we always abide by the protocols, and we wore black armbands on Wednesday night, and I think there is a minute's applause. We will abide by whatever obligations and responsibilities we have as a football club. We will do that in a respectful manner, and we want our supporters to do the same. I am not going to speak on behalf of anybody else or supporters. I'll look after my one club and our own supporters, and we will do whatever is required, which I think we have done so far in a respectful manner as a football club.
"It depends on what you are reading or what you are listening to. My focus is on us as a football club, and the performance was really strong at the highest level of competition. We have still got some growth to do as a football team and playing at that level on a consistent basis. I was encouraged by our progress, and I know we need to keep improving in those areas. We will continue to represent our football club in the best possible way."
International break
"It's part of the process now. You know that players will go away at the international level, and it is a bit different this year because we have only had one international break, and then it is the World Cup. The pleasing thing for us is that a lot of it is happening on this side of the world. Japan are having their games in Europe. That mitigates the travel factor for our boys. We have no issues with that.
"We are going to come up to a pretty intense period after it, so hopefully, being away from our football club and being in a different environment hopefully freshens them up and they come back raring to go."
Greg Taylor
"Yeah, Greg is going really well. He is improving because he wants to improve. He is one of these players who, in the past, people put him in a certain box and classified him as a certain type of player for a certain kind of level. As I keep saying to all our footballers, that is up to them to change that perception with improvement in performance and in training and in everything they do physically and mentally on and off the pitch. Greg is one of those guys, and he comes in every day wanting to be better. I think he has been encouraged because he is seeing the fruits of his labour.
"His performance is continually improving, and I think he has done exceptionally well for us this year, including in the Champions League games. He is only 24, and that is key to us as a football team at the moment. I keep saying we want to have growth, and we want to keep improving, the beauty of that is that if you look at our starting line-up, then a lot of the players who played on Wednesday night or who have played so far is that their best years are very much ahead of them.
"As long as they maintain that mindset of improvement, then who knows what level they can reach? The dangers come when they get comfortable and plateau in a certain space, but Greg is not one of those guys, and since I have been here, he's really embraced the culture and the environment and wants to be the best footballer he can be."
Donetsk praise
"Yeah, it is experience. Not many teams score nine goals at Champions League level. The games, by nature, are tighter, and the chances are sharper. You cannot improve on that unless you are exposed to it. We know there is room for improvement for us. We need to take our chances. It is the most difficult part of our game, and the higher the level, the more difficult it gets. It is why the players who take their chances at the highest level are the most profitable assets. They are in a unique space, but it does not mean you cannot strive to get there.
"I do not see it as a weakness for us. It is more a case of the more we are exposed to it and take up these positions we will then get our rewards. The difficulty is getting into those positions in the first place. It is not easy to do that. We are edging our way to being that team, and the next layer is turning those opportunities into goals. From there, you can turn this into regular victories at this level, but that does not happen with the snap of your fingers."
Improving as a team
"Yeah, it is really the only bit. Everyone sees the end product, which is the game. They hopefully see us improving as a team performance by performance. However, the real work happens in between that and in training every day. Even away from that, how they conduct themselves in their private lives feeds into that. They come in here every day irrespective of what happened in the previous game, looking to be better. That is a mindset thing. You wake up every morning wanting to be a little bit better than the day before, and this will not happen after one good performance.
"Like I said, not just what they do here but at home, the whole life of a footballer, their career is very brief compared to how long they have on this earth. I hope they all have healthy and long lives, but their football career is less than a tenth of that. You have got to invest everything you can for that time you are a footballer to be the best you can be. That goes for on and off the field. We try to provide that environment here, so they know the moment they come through those gates, they are answering to me if they are not pushing themselves. When they leave the gates, though, I am not in the car with them or at their house, so it is equally as important they deal with that side for them to fulfil that potential.
Increasing experience in the Champions League
"Unfortunately, the nature of life and football these days is that people have very little patience. They want results immediately. The moment you show a little bit of progress, they want the next development to happen straight away. To be fair to this group of players, they have made unbelievable progress in the last 13 or 14 months. If you at the fact some of them were not even playing in Europe, some were playing in Asia, and some were playing at League 1 or Championship level. Very few of them had been exposed to this level of football before, so the progress they have made has been outstanding. You then fall into the trap of thinking the next bit of progress is going to happen quickly, but it is a process.
"I want us to be a Champions League football club. That does not mean just getting a result in the group but that every year you are there and every year you get a little bit stronger or become a worthy challenger to get deep into the competition. It takes time, but you cannot fast-track these things. That is the way of the world. Unfortunately, these days, people think if you take your chances, you have conquered this level, but it is not about that. It is about playing the type of football we want to play at that level. If we can do that, then, as I said, the rewards will come when we are worthy."
Celtic, The Musical
"Theatre critic? (Laughs) Yeah, five stars. Is that how they judge them? It was a great night. The cast does a great job, and the production behind them is brilliant. It is very much an interactive show, so the punters are just as much a part of the show as the cast. It was an enjoyable night. Everyone was there for a good time. It is great for guys like Kyogo to be there. He has fallen in love with this football club, and he had Welshy (Stephen Welsh) giving him the subtitles during it, so I think he got the gist of it. It is always great to be amongst our supporters, and it is well worth seeing. So there is my review, mate."
