Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is not a fan of the stop-start nature of Scottish Football, which his side comes up against on a regular basis.
The Hoops have enjoyed a great spell of form but unfortunately dropped their first points on Sunday since December at Easter Road in a 0-0 draw with Hibernian.
During that run, Ange Postecoglou’s side have come up against a number of opposition teams, who have time wasted their way through games in the attempt to win points against Celtic.
Speaking to CeltsAreHere in the aftermath of Sunday’s draw, Postecoglou admitted he understood why clubs do enforce these tactics but made it clear he wasn’t a fan of seeing football played that way.
“I’m not a fan of it,” he told CeltsAreHere.
“I get why teams do it, but what do you do? That’s part of football; that’s part of the challenge.
“We’ve just got to keep going and keep performing, keep making sure that we play our football and believe in our football,” Postecoglou said.
To Celtic fans and other clubs in the Scottish Premiership, this isn’t new, with clubs trying to earn points of the bigger sides in the league.
Although it may be frustrating to us, it is fair enough for sides to be deploying tactics that will likely get the most out of the game, as long as they are in line with the rules that are in place.
It wasn’t the first, and certainly won’t be the last time we face a side who do similar, and Postecoglou will be looking for his side to do more to put games to bed before it gets to the later stages of the match.
Ange’s perspective
This is a new challenge for Ange in many ways. He wants to see two teams going out and playing football but that’s not going to happen in the SPFL. Clubs with lower budgets with lesser players will always try to level the playing field by finding an edge in the not so beautiful side of the game.
The Celtic manager wants free flowing football, something that’s very evident at Celtic Park when you see the ball boys making sure the ball is back in play very quickly.
