Scottish striker Stephen McGinn has claimed that Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou seemed more animated than usual on the touchline on Wednesday night.
The Bhoys manager took his side to Germany for matchday three of their Champions League group stage campaign.
However, after drawing level in the second period through Jota, they were ultimately undone by the hosts RB Leipzig.
Andre Silva grabbed a brace for the Bundesliga outfit in the 3-1 win, the first of which was gift-wrapped by the Hoops after a misplaced pass from Joe Hart to put the home side back in front.
The former England no.1 came in for criticism following his blunder, but his manager jumped to his defence, insisting that he did not need apologise for his mistake, saying (via Football Scotland): “It’s not about the mistake. It’s about before then. We had a lot of the ball and we were just passing it back to him for no reason.
“You are doing what you think is safe but it’s not really what we are,” before insisting that he could see the mistake coming.
Speaking on the GO Radio Football Show following the game, host Paul Cooney relayed Ange’s comments and asked McGinn if he spotted anything while watching the match, to which the Falkirk striker replied:
“He looked agitated during the game, he looked frustrated with something – it might be that [Silva’s goal].
“I mean, he likes to play forward-thinking football, and if boys are taking the easy option by going back the ways, your goalie is always on, but sometimes, managers don’t like the ball going back all the time.
“He definitely by his standards looked a bit more agitated than normal.”
TIF Thoughts on Ange and Celtic…
Do you think Celtic can make it out of the CL group?Yes
No
|
The manager, of course, prides himself on an expansive brand of football but at a higher level, it isn’t always going to be as easy.
According to SofaScore, the Scottish champions completed 85% of their passes just shy of their opponents (86%) albeit making 166 fewer.
They did however attempt 11 fewer long balls than in their most recent domestic fixture at home to Motherwell last weekend which would perhaps reflect a tendency from the players to avoid taking a risk with their passing.
But considering the club have averaged 3.8 expected goals for the tournament it just highlights the quality of chances they are creating and should give the side confidence heading into the second half of the group stage with plenty still to play for.