Frosty Ange Postecoglou makes ‘heavyweight champion’ comparison as Celtic boss addresses dip in performances

Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has bemoaned his team’s defensive frailties after admitting the champions have not reached their usual high performance levels in recent weeks.

The Hoops had to settle for a point apiece after drawing 2-2 with St Mirren at Parkhead on Saturday in what was their first game back on home soil since clinching the Scottish Premiership title earlier this month.

Following a heavy 3-0 Glasgow derby defeat to Rangers last weekend, Celtic went into this match hoping to bounce back with an emphatic win in front of their own supporters with Scottish Cup final starting jerseys up for grabs.

However, it proved another lacklustre display from Postecoglou’s side with Tomoki Iwata failing to convince in his first game at centre-back. Speaking on BBC Sportsound post-match, a frosty Postecoglou stated his side won’t win every fixture as he made the comparison to a heavyweight boxing champion.

Asked if their had been a drop off in recent performances, he replied: “Yeah it is natural and for some of them, that is probably the case. But you’ve still got games to play, what do you do? If that’s your attitude going into it then it is going to be a struggler.

“Look, we’re champions. I get it that people are so obsessed. The heavyweight champion of the world doesn’t have to win every round. But he holds the belt. We hold the belt. So people can try and write narratives. We play games of football with a certain underlying principle because we want to enjoy it, we want our fans to enjoy it and we haven’t done that in the last couple of weeks.

“But beyond that, if anyone looks at this team and says they are anything other than a champion group then they are just looking for things that aren’t there.”

Postecoglou was adamant their recent dip in form is NOT down to the absence of key central defender Cameron Carter-Vickers, who is sidelined for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on a niggling knee injury.

The Australian snapped back at those claims, insisting: “I can guarantee one thousand percent it’s not one player, it’s got nothing to do with Cameron Carter-Vickers. We’ve missed Cameron before, we’ve played Champions League football without him. That’s the easy thing to look at. We’re not working as hard off the ball prior to winning the title.

“When you don’t do that, that’s what happens and you can’t dominate games of football like we did. We pride ourselves on being reletnless and you can’t just be relentless when you have the ball. For us, it’s more important that we are when we don’t have it and we haven’t been the last couple of weeks.”

Curtis Main scored twice for the Buddies at Celtic Park with Kyogo Furuhashi and Callum McGregor on target for the hosts to secure a share of the spoils.