Celtic: Ange Postecoglou ‘curious’ over Rangers comparisons from rival coaches | Football News

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is baffled by some opponents’ tendencies to lump his side together with Rangers when discussing games.

The former Australia head coach brought up the subject after being asked about Aberdeen’s cautious tactics on Saturday.

Celtic had 33 shots at goal and 80 per cent possession against a side who managed two efforts, both off target, and failed to force a corner.

Dons boss Jim Goodwin explained after Celtic’s late 1-0 win that he had learned from a recent trip to Ibrox when his side lost 4-1 after he vowed to attack Rangers.

When asked whether he had noticed more teams sitting back against the Scottish Premiership leaders, Postecoglou said: “Not really and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I assume Jim set up his team to try and get a result against us and every manager tries to do that.

“The curious thing I find, and it’s more to do with language than anything else – and it’s driven I guess a little bit by you guys in the media – but also I hear opposition coaches and opposition players before we play them, they can’t seem to differentiate between us and Rangers at all.

“It’s almost like ‘when you play the top two, this is what happens’. Some of them even talk about it as if it’s an excursion. ‘You go through to Glasgow and this is what you expect’.

“I don’t get that, because if I referred to all the other teams apart from Rangers as ‘the other 10’, and that ‘when we play the other 10, this is what happens’, I’m not paying respect to the fact that Livingston are going to be a different challenge on Wednesday to St Johnstone at the weekend.

“Even though they may play defensively, different ways they do that. Playing at home is different to playing away.

“So we approach every game as if it’s a jumps race – you respect every hurdle. Just because you are a few lengths in front, you don’t walk around and not worry about the next one.

“That’s a bit I find sort of curious because if people are assuming if something works or doesn’t work against Rangers, that’s a reflection of how it’s going to be, we are totally different teams.

“From my perspective, it kind of works in our favour if that’s how opposition coaches talk. I don’t think they think that way.

“But they talk that way and also, putting it in a historical context, it just makes the task seem insurmountable. Because you go ‘when you play the top two, this has always happened’.

“Well, you are not playing the top two, you are playing Rangers, or you are playing Celtic, and you are playing at home, or maybe they have injuries or they had a bad week the week before.

“Maybe managers and some players fall into the trap of answering questions because that’s the way it’s put to them, but that’s what I sort of struggle with. Not the tactics, we all have our own methodology.”

Confirmed Scottish Premiership fixtures live on Sky Sports

Friday December 23: Ross County vs Rangers, kick-off 7.30pm

Wednesday December 28: Hibernian vs Celtic, kick-off 8pm

Monday January 2: Rangers vs Celtic, kick-off 12.30pm

Sunday January 8: Motherwell vs Hibernian, kick-off 1.30pm

Sunday January 8: Dundee United vs Rangers, kick-off 4pm

Wednesday January 18: Kilmarnock v Rangers, kick-off 8pm

Sunday January 29: Livingston v Hearts, kick-off 1.30pm

Sunday January 29: Dundee United v Celtic, kick-off 4pm

Scottish Premiership & SWPL on Sky Sports

Sky Sports – This season up to 48 cinch Premiership games will be available across Sky Sports’ flagship channels, including Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Main Event, plus at least five SWPL matches. From 2024/25, up to 60 cinch Premiership will be live on Sky Sports, in addition to the SWPL.

Sky Sports News – Running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Scottish football fans can enjoy Sky Sports News’ (channel 409) rolling editorial coverage of the cinch Premiership and SWPL throughout the season.

Sky Sports Digital – Follow all the latest from Scottish football across skysports.com and app, including exclusive features and interviews, plus dedicated live blog coverage, in-game clips from matches live on Sky Sports and free highlights.

Sky Sports Social – Alongside coverage and visibility for the league across all Sky Sports’ main social media channels, the bespoke Twitter channel @ScotlandSky will continue to be the home of all Scottish football content on Sky Sports.

Highlights show – Tune in for a dedicated round-up from the cinch Premiership every week on Sky Sports Football.

To download the Sky Sports app click here, to visit Sky Sports website click here.

Sky Sports is the home of domestic football in the UK and Ireland, with more than 400 games per season across the SPFL, SWPL, Premier League, WSL, and EFL.

Follow Celtic with Sky Sports

Follow every Celtic game in the Scottish Premiership this season with our live blogs on the Sky Sports website and app, and watch match highlights for free.

Want the Celtic latest? Bookmark our Celtic news page, check out Celtic’s fixtures and Celtic’s latest results, watch Celtic’s goals and video, keep track of the Scottish Premiership table and see which Celtic games are coming up live on Sky Sports.

Get all this and more – including notifications sent straight to your phone – by downloading the Sky Sports app and setting Celtic as your favourite team.