'We can't be successful' - Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou slams display and explains Bolingoli-Scales situation

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou conceded that his team’s current away form makes success impossible.
Ange Postecoglou looks on with concern during Celtic's defeat by Livingston.Ange Postecoglou looks on with concern during Celtic's defeat by Livingston.
Ange Postecoglou looks on with concern during Celtic's defeat by Livingston.

The Australian was damning of his team’s efforts in their 1-0 defeat at Livingston – labelling “everybody” in the “attacking third” “terrible” – and didn’t shy away from the fact that it is now six losses in seven games on the road.

Asked about the need for something to change in away games, he said: “If we play like today, then yes. In the other away games we were well in the games and played well. But you know what? On the other hand, if we don’t get results away from home then we can’t be successful, so that’s still got to change. Irrespective of what I think about performances, we’ve still got to get the results, and that’s the reality of it. Until we tackle that in the right way, then we’re going to have this problem.

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“Our front third play was poor, it was probably the poorest it’s been all year. We’ve obviously had some issues defensively, but I just thought today in the front half we were terrible. That was everybody, not just the strikers or the attacking players, we lacked a real conviction in going forward to be positive. That falls on me to get it right.

We started the game very sterile, we didn’t really take the game to them. We wanted to just ease our way into the game and when they scored we’re obviously chasing the game. Our football was OK, we created some chances, but our decisions in the final third were really poor. We ultimately paid the price for not applying ourselves as we should.

"It's my responsibility to make sure that moving forward we don’t allow these sort of situations to happen again. As I said, we just didn’t start the the way we should have,”

Postecoglou suggested his hand was forced in the surprise start for Boli Bolingoli, whose contribution he was notably non-committal over. “Boli has been training well and we thought it was a good game to give him a start with Greg [Taylor] going down and Monty [Adam Montgomery] playing 90 minutes the other night [in the 4-3 defeat away to Real Betis]. It was a big ask to ask him to start, and Liam Scales isn’t quite ready yet."