Why Celtic's Jota believes Ange Postecoglou's men can't accept manner of Pittodrie win

Just how deeply-imbedded Ange Postecoglou’s convictions are within his Celtic squad has been illustrated in arresting fashion by matchwinner Jota following the Glasgow club’s 2-1 win at Aberdeen.

Jota celebrates after netting the winner in Celtic's scrappy 2-1 success in Aberdeen

A first league away success for the Australian’s men - and a first on the road in the top flight for the club since mid-February - wasn’t delivered by an assured, scintillating display. Angeball wasn’t in evidence. Instead, it was dug out from an uneven performance thanks to the 84th minute excavation effort of winner from the on-loan Benfica performer. On the back of Celtic’s previous brittleness in unfamiliar surrounds - six defeats the product of their seven such outings prior to the weekend - prospering in such circumstances might have seemed a cause for satisfaction.

Yet not for the 22-year-old taking delight in the capacity to win ugly, to grind out a result - as Postecoglou’s self-confessed purism has appeared could make a serious stick point for his team. Eschewing the standard line about the need sometimes to win without reaching the desired levels, Jota is unabashed that Celtic must always set their standards higher, and follow the most challenging path.

“I think that if we can play good football then that is the most important thing,” he said. “We don’t want to win playing bad football because those are not our principles. The ideals and the process of the manager, those tell us we have to stick to our plans, fight for the team and to believe in everyone. That is what we are trying to do. It is not an easy job but difficult things in life are the best ones and we are fighting to get to the end of the championship with a lot of good things.”

Jota, across his month in Celtic colours, is personally providing lots of good things. His Aberdeen strike was a first league first goal for the club, following on from his Premier Sports Cup strike in the Raith Rovers win with which he opened his account almost two weeks ago. Outside of Kyogo Furuhashi, the fully-committed attacker has represented the most exciting addition among the 12 players recruited by Celtic over the summer.

His contributions across seven straight starts in little over three weeks are all the more impressive because such a punishing schedule is entirely without precedent. He only made eight starts across the entirety of the 2020-21 campaign spent on loan to Real Valladolid. The previous season, with his parent club, he only made the starting line-up six times.

“Playing twice a week is something new for me. I have never done this, it is my first time,” Jota said. “For sure, it is an amazing feeling because you don’t get time to think about the bad things. You have to go to the next game with the best mentality and just to recover. We have to be mentally ready both collectively and individually for every challenge. There is a big responsibility for this club - we have to win every game and win every challenge.”

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