Celtic's Ange Postecoglou: 'I know people are wanting to push me on some kind of ledge - it’s not going to happen'

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is refusing to give in to growing pessimism - despite the ghastly form extended by the 1-1 draw at home to Dundee United that leaves his side already six points adrift of cinch Premiership leaders Rangers.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglu betrays the agonies as another chance goes abegging in the 1-1 draw at home to Dundee United that is another blemish in the club's pock-marked early season. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The pressure is now building on the Australian after only one win in four league games that is a sequence that can be married to six away losses in seven encounters on the road. Yet, the 56-year-old maintains that he won’t be tumbled by his team failing to meet the demands that are non-negotiable at Celtic – and comprehensively failing to be met.

"I know people are wanting to push me on some kind of edge of the ledge somewhere. It's just not going to happen,” he said. “I don't worry about those things. I look at how my team is playing and what we are trying to create. I know it frustrates people because I know what they want me to say... I know what the club is about, I know what the expectations are. I believe the road we have started on will get us there so we will just keep going.

"It's a weird league. You call things early here, don't you? It's quite remarkable that seven games in people are calling the title already. It's just not how I work. I'm not pulling up stumps after seven games just because other people seem to think there is some sort of insurmountable challenge out there for us. If we weren't playing well, if we were struggling through things, then by all means I would be looking at things a lot differently. With the efforts we are putting in at the moment, and the football we are playing, and the chances we are creating, and what we have got to come back into the team, I just see it totally differently.”

Postecoglou is patently pinning his hopes on the return of integral performers Callum McGregor, Kyogo Furuhashi and James Forrest in the coming weeks, claiming the draw with United - wherein Celtic three times struck the goal frame and missed several other chances - was “on” him as he praised the “efforts” of a team he has required to field largely unchanged through three games this week.

That situation will change across the international break, which comes after Celtic host Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League on Thursday and travel up to an even more toiling Aberdeen next Sunday. The one positive he had to report - on a day when Josip Juranovic was lost to a hamstring problem - was that the calf problem sustained by Giorgios Giakoumakis in midweek has transpired to be a minor issue.

‘We’ve just got to get through to the next international break. By then Giorgos should be available,” he said. “If he gets a full week of training we’re quite hopeful he should be ready for Aberdeen. The scan that came back showed he didn’t need to go back into rehab. And Kyogo isn’t too far away and so is Cal [McGregor]. James Forrest, Mikey Johnston will come back to help us - we’re hoping post international break.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.