Ange Postecoglou has vowed Celtic will learn harsh lessons from their painful day in Paisley.
But the Parkhead boss is facing further problems with £6 million defender Cameron Carter-Vickers a big doubt for the next Champions League showdown against RB Leipzig. Postecoglou was left bitterly disappointed after his side’s 364-day unbeaten Premiership run was ended by St Mirren.
The Aussie’s team were off it in every department and he made no attempts to brush it aside or put it down to just a bad day. Instead, Postecoglou is adamant his team must take on board what went badly wrong and said: “We just weren’t aggressive both in action and in thought. We kind of tried to ease our way into a game of football and you just can’t do that. You’ve got to be at it from the start and we weren’t. You can’t take all the praise as you go along and then expect people just to brush over it.
“You don’t put it down to one of those days, it’s a disappointing day. We pride ourselves on having certain standards and we didn’t reach those. And football will always teach you that lesson. What has got us to this point over the past 15 or 16 months is having a certain work ethic and certain levels of performance and belief. We didn’t reach any of those. We’ve got to take the hits when they come and we’ve just got to get back up and go again.
“We’ve done that before as a team over the past 15 or 16 months. It’s a sore one, it’s one that we’ve got to use as the fuel we need next to get going again. Look, in terms of reaction, the reaction will be the reaction. We were nowhere near the levels we want to be. Credit to St Mirren first of all. They worked really hard and were really committed to their gameplan. They made it hard for us, but we never hit the levels we need to play our football. It’s about dusting ourselves off and getting going again.”
Postecoglou made six changes to the team from the Champions League draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw and it didn't work.
Asked if the alterations affected rhythm, he reflected: “Potentially. You look at everything. Team selection, the way you perform. Everything is under scrutiny. Irrespective of those kinds of factors, we didn’t hit any of our marks in terms of the kind of football we want to play, the intensity, tempo we want to have in a game. We just never got going. You know you come to these places and it’s difficult. You have to assert our authority and dominate and we never did that.
“We just looked a little bit flat at the start. Trying to get going during a game is almost impossible. You need to set the tempo early and we didn’t. Disappointing day all round.”
Postecoglou was without first-choice defenders Carter-Vickers and Carl Stafelt as two basic goals were lost as he said: “They were reflective of the whole game. We didn’t create as we normally do either.
"There is not one aspect we performed at the levels required to be the kind of football team we want to be. When that happens, you get punished.”
Carter-Vickers was badly missed and is now out of America’s matches during the international break. Postecoglou admits he’s not sure if he’ll be ready for the resumption of club business.
Celtic face Motherwell at home on October 1 before going to Leipzig five days later in the Champions League. When asked about the defender’s situation, the boss said: “We’ll see how he is. I think he’s out of the US camp, so we are hoping post international break he won’t be too far away.”
On Starfelt, he added: “Again, we’ll just wait and see. He’s still in rehab, so we’ll see how he is potentially after the break.”
READ NEXT
