Ange Postecoglou shouldered blame for Celtic's defeat at Easter Road - admitting his post-title winning rotation has 'hurt' his team.
The Premiership champions have not won since being crowned league winners for the second season in a row, and went down 4-2 to Hibs on Wednesnday night.
Celtic were 2-1 up when Daizen Maeda was shown a second yellow card, and Lee Johnson's side went on to seize the initiative for a victory that puts them on the brink of securing European football.
Postecoglou, having made a number of changes, says the responsibility for the defeat lies with him, albeit he felt the sending off was pivotal to the result.
“I thought up until the sending-off, we were in a good position and looking to finish strong," the Celtic manager said. "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.
“We love to live in the moment and everyone is sort of 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.
“Although, like I said, until the sending off, I thought we were in a good position.
“Aside from that, as I said, that’s my responsibility. I’ll take that. That’s the decisions I’ve made. In the last three weeks, they haven’t been to be benefit of the team.
“But in terms of any far-reaching assessments or conclusions, as I said earlier in the week, it’s for other people to make.”
Postecoglou refused to point fingers at Maeda after his dismissal, nor at back-up keeper Scott Bain for dropping a clanger at Elie Youan's winning goal.
"He [Maeda] is a guy who just gives everything," Postecoglou said. "I would never criticise him, the effort he puts in is just outstanding.
"He doesn’t go down as easy as others. That’s a credit to him.
"That’s part of the game. He’ll learn from that. He’s a strong lad who stays on his feet when he gets punished.
"It is disappointing for Scott 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 making five or six changes a game and that is hard on the guys coming in I totally get that.
"That is part of me and that's just the way I do things as I like to throw guys out there and it is a sink or swim mentality but we provide the support and give them the feedback to be better.
"It is unfortunate for him because it was looking like a good night for him."
