Ange Postecoglou is a pure footballing coach and his high-risk approach won’t be out of place in the Champions League.
The Celtic manager is determined to do it his way and why shouldn’t he? Has he not earned the right to do so? And, anyway, it makes no sense for a manager to coach players for an entire season to play one way and then ask them to rip it up and do something the opposite on the biggest stage of the lot.
Celtic build from the back, they take risks. It’s the same approach as Pep Guardiola and Manchester City. Obviously, Guardiola has a higher standard of player at his disposal, but this young team of Postecoglou’s are having great success with it and I fully believe they can give Real Madrid a bloody nose by going at it in this manner. I’ve got to say, this Celtic team under Postecoglou are a great watch. They are so fast and fluid and some of the football is a joy.
I’m well aware there’s more than one way to get the job done. I recall Neil Lennon’s team beating Barcelona a decade ago with barely any possession. That was a hang-in-the-game backs-to-the-wall job.
Postecoglou won’t be doing that. He’s said as much. Celtic have every right to have a go at the European champions tomorrow night and they’ll be confident about it after the way they steamrollered Rangers.
Listen, so much has been said about the Old Firm game already with my Record Sport colleague Barry Ferguson, in particular, getting some stick over his one-plan Ange column.
Barry will be wiping the egg off his face. We all regret saying things sometimes and I’m sure he regrets suggesting Gio van Bronckhorst had Ange sussed.
All I’ll say is that, when that system and style of Postecoglou’s is working on full throttle, there’s not a lot some teams can do about it and that clearly includes Rangers.
Nonetheless, quite how the Ibrox players could not have been ready for the quick free-kicks and throw-ins at the weekend is beyond me. It’s not as if Celtic have been hiding the tactic. Celtic punished them with the lethal movement and finishing which has been the hallmark of the Postecoglou reign.
You could criticise so much of Rangers’ display and they’ll be hoping it’s a one-off which does not impact them going forward. Van Bronckhorst is a good manager, but there were various aspects of the selection and the approach which he didn’t get right at Parkhead.
Rangers had success against Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final last season pressing their opponents high, but the personnel didn’t give them much chance to stop the home team from breaking it and they did it time and again.
In football these days, one of the biggest deciders in any game is whether one team’s press is better than the opponent’s build up? We got Celtic’s answer at the weekend in terms of Rangers and that’s going to be the biggest aspect of their Real game.
Celtic got past Rangers easily, but will they get beyond Real if the Spaniards try it? I actually suspect they won’t. I suspect they will be wily and sit a bit deeper as they did against Liverpool in last year’s final.
If they do, Celtic are going to have to be ready for when it’s nicked off them. As shown in transitions in Europe last season, if you play the high-risk Postecoglou way and misplace a pass, you can get sliced through with one ball from the opposition. Real, as we all know, have that quality.
If Greg Taylor and Josip Juranovic have emptied their full-back positions to play inverted and possession is lost, Celtic will need a structure to ensure they can recover quickly and not to be exposed to a Vinicius Junior running clean through them. But that’s the challenge. Don’t make mistakes. Test yourself to be clean with your work and play with intensity.
Real might be better than Celtic, but they can’t coast. They can’t turn up and stroll around. Celtic will outrun them, I’m sure.
If Postecoglou’s team gets it wrong, they could be open to being picked off at will. If they get it right, however, they can engineer a famous win.
It’s high risk for ultimate reward. And it’s going to be an incredible watch.
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