Ange Postecoglou's Celtic interview full transcript: Kyogo's cup final chances assessed

First of all Ange any injury updates with regards to James Forrest and Kyogo?

I think we've only got half an hour in this press conference but I'll try and condense it for you. Nothing has really changed from last week in terms of players coming back. Nobody is coming back. The ones who are out like James as you saw had a problem the other night and we are still assessing him. He'll be out tomorrow night and we'll get some information in the next couple of days on him. Mikey Johnston, ​we are not sure about either as he was sore after the game and as I said he wasn't 100 per cent but we will see how he is. Everyone else pulled through okay as far as I know.

You have got Ross County tomorrow night and the League Cup final on Sunday is it a balancing act?

Not really. We have got a game to win tomorrow night and that is my focus. From my perspective, we understand the significance of the weekend game but we can't dismiss that three points tomorrow night is very significant for us as well and a good performance against a very tough opponent away from home. As always I am going to put out a team that I think will win the game for us and after that, we will dust ourselves down and assess what is available for the weekend. That sort of mentality has served us well for the past couple of months and how we have tackled every game and we will continue to do that.

Does Kyogo have a chance of playing on Sunday?

It's not a matter of ducks and drakes. Who knows? I'm not sure. Like I said he's not far off and it just depends. It is a day-to-day thing. If he's ready to go we will play him. If he's not we will look to the following game. I'd expect him to be back at some point in the next week or so from the way he is improving at the moment. With these things, you rely on everything running smoothly and it does not always go that way and if he has a setback that might put him back a little further. Kyogo and the medical team are working hard and we'll see what happens.

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Can I get your thoughts on the Europa League Conference draw against FK Bodo/Glimt?

Look firstly it is great as we have an opportunity now to be in the knockout stages of a European competition in the New Year which is exciting for us and it is something to plan for. With the opponents there is always a couple of things that you look at - the opponents themselves and the conditions you are going to have to face. Both are going to be equally challenging for us. Bodo is a very good team as they have been champions the last couple of years. If you look at their European group they were undefeated and had a couple of significant results. Then you look at the conditions and obviously going there in February and they have an artificial pitch there are some fantastic challenges for us. Whoever we got it was going to be exciting. The first game is here at Celtic Park which will hopefully be a big game for us. Hopefully, by then I will be talking less about injuries and about how many players I have at my disposal and we have a fair crack at it.

How big a deal is having European football after Christmas? How big a priority is that for you?

This is where we want to be as a football club and we want to be playing in Europe and testing ourselves on the continent against the best and getting deep into it not just the group stages. This is a new competition which has given us the opportunity to continue even though we didn't progress in the Europa League. It is still European competition and there are still very good football teams with strong pedigrees and we are one of them and we want to do well in it.

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How important has it been for you to have fans back in the stadium and if new restrictions come in how much do you hope stadia can remain full or close to full through Christmas and New Year?

Look public health is the main issue here. You want football to be the be-all-and-end-all but public health is the most important thing and this club will always follow the guidelines set out. You have seen this year the difference in having fans than those who experienced it without them as it is a different beast altogether as the game changes, I really believe that. The way players play and the intensity changes without crowds there. For us, our support is a massive part of this football club. I'm hoping regulations are tight but that it doesn't impact our supporters coming to see the game.

We have seen matches down south cancelled because of positive covid cases - is that a concern that something similar may start happening up here?

It is always a concern. I think the general public got fairly relaxed about it in terms of life being normal but we haven't really changed our processes since I got in the building. We've been really vigilant and following all the protocols and making sure of everything as we know it is a constant and it can happen anytime. As you said it has affected a couple of Premier League clubs now and I would assume those EPL clubs are doing the same things that other clubs are doing. It is not like you can bulletproof yourself as you can do everything right and it can still impact you. We are aware of all that and we have been vigilant about protocols, mask-wearing and social distancing and how many buses we have on road trips to minimise the spread of it impacting us. It is a constant and all of us are kind of hopeful that we get through this period unscathed.

The fact that you have a midweek game, a long journey as well in the week of a cup final, is that less than ideal preparation?

Mate, it is what it is. We have played in Germany or Spain in midweek and had to back up so which are longer trips than Dingwall although the bus ride will feel pretty long. That's part of being at this football club and I think since the last international break we are going to have 13 games and that is more games than anyone else but that is because we made a cup final. I'd much rather be in a cup final than not play. We had European games and I'd much rather play in Europe than not and that is how we have to approach it. The guys have been fantastic and brilliant at not making excuses or looking for them and our performances over three months have been very consistent and pleasing the results have followed as well.

You played Ross County earlier this season, what did you make of them and in a few recent games County have scored plenty of goals is that what you expect tomorrow night?

Who knows? I think Ross County have improved a lot and Malky Mackay has done a super job with them. Probably when we played them most people would have already written them off this year with the start to the season they had as they had a lot of young players in the team when we played them. They have improved and their results probably don't reflect their improvement in the games I have watched they have been good value. It is always a good barometer whether teams score goals the ones that are down at the bottom because most of the time teams will just fight for survival and try and get wins with minimum risk. They have gone at games and credit to them and we expect a tough game tomorrow night. I don't think it will be an open game and we will not change our approach so there could very well be goals.

Are you confident that whatever formation you play, if David Turnbull is upfront that you can get all three points and that the balance of the team won't be affected?

It hasn't so far. We lost Jota a few weeks ago and we are doing okay and we lost Kyogo and we have done all right. It is not ideal as you want all your best players playing. We have been pretty hard in terms of our forward set-up and unfortunately, most of our injuries have come in that area. it is testing us for sure but from what I have seen from this group of players our level of performance hasn't dropped. The indicators that we look for of how dominant we are and the chances we are creating and even against Motherwell and I know that was a 1-0 scoreline we created some really good scoring opportunities even though we did not have an ideal forward set-up. That doesn't change as that is what this group of players want. They don't want excuses and they want to go out there and prove themselves and overcome every challenge and we have had plenty of them since I have got here and we will keep tackling them the same way.

James Forrest's issue is not linked to his earlier injury, is it?

This is kinds of a different one as it is a different area. I don't want to be specific as we do not have the scans back yet on what his issue is.

Is James a doubt for the cup final?

He would be a doubt for sure because I don't know.

How do you feel the squad has coped with all of the injuries?

The evidence suggests the squad is coping really well. From the moment I got here, we have had challenges right from the start like throwing guys in without training and throwing guys in who hadn't had a pre-season and throwing guys in from the other side of the world and through it all we haven't made excuses, we haven't tried to make allowances, we haven't said give us time as we have just got on with it. The squad keeps getting on with it which as a manager is brilliant to see. It means that I have got a really resilient and tough group of players who want to be successful. We are getting challenged in a different way now with injuries but I haven't seen anything in the performances to tell me that the players are wilting in the stress that they may be going through. If anything they are rolling up their sleeves a little bit further and digging in a little bit more and making sure we get through this period.

You said the squad and fringe players were improving all the time as we saw against Real Betis, are you confident that they are ready now if called upon?

It was essential against Real Betis. People focused on the fact that we were trying to rest and not risk players but just as important for me was that we got some game time into players legs who had not played a lot this year. We are going to need them at some point. They train hard every day and I see their improvement. Every footballer wants to play and it was important we gave them that reward for all their hard work. A lot of the guys you saw that was their first runout but that was their reward for all their hard work during the year and not playing. It was also super-important for me that they showed they could play at that level. It was important for themselves as well as there is always a little bit of doubt as to whether they can perform at the level we want them to and can they play the football we want them to until you see them out there. A lot of them stood up very well against a very good opponent and that was very valuable for me and the players that they got through that game well.

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You called up players from the B team and how important is it that Tommy McIntyre's team are playing the same system as the first team?

It is essential and Tommy has done a good job making sure that kind of information is being fed to the players. I don't want them coming into our environment and it is a massive step up in terms of intensity and the way in which we do things. The way they train is just as important as the way they play. When they come to us we don't want our level of training to drop off because a young guy is coming in. They are expected to come in and contribute and if they are training that way with Tommy it makes that transition easier for them. For me, that is still an area that I want to do some major work on and when we go through the experience of having such challenges in terms of injuries for me if we have players in our B team or our academy that could step up then nothing would please me more than to give them an opportunity.

The number of injuries has to do with the high-intensity training is there a sports science solution that the club isn't exploring?

That's a fair point and I can't really comment on the past processes. What I can tell you is that this experience is not unusual for me at any club I have managed as my background in Australia is very heavily influenced by sports science and it is very prevalent in sport in Australia. People misunderstand me when I say we train hard as I do not have my players running up the hills of Lennoxtown endlessly with 20kg of weights on their backs as that is not what we are doing. People have to appreciate that pre-season for any team is a really important part of what you do. We did not have any of these guys for preseason for a significant amount of time. We had internationals who were away, we had new signings who came in late. We had guys who came back who were injured during pre-season and we have been playing catch-up ever since. To try to explain to people the logic when it looks illogical what I am doing, I have always resisted in terms of temptation from my perspective to adjust the game style to people who aren't ready for it. I just don't work that way. We go hard from when I take over and we keep going hard right until the end. Along the way that means there is going to be some attrition and that means some players are going to struggle with it. I think it is only logical and we are putting a lot of work into the medical and sports science area to make sure our players are prepared and some of it is just because they haven't had the right preparation for it and the only answer to that would be for me to change the way we train and change the way we play to accommodate for that and I don't think we would have the success that way.

You used David Turnbull through the middle against Motherwell, can you tell us the thinking behind that and are you thinking of using Liel Abada next or one of the B team players as an alternative?

It wasn't specific to David Turnbull and we just wanted to make sure we were fluid through there. During the game, he dropped out and Tommy Rogic got into some great areas in the front third and he probably had more chances in that game than he has had previously in other games because we had him more advanced. We can talk about Abada then we would be thinking who would we play on the wing. We are always going to be a little bit short somewhere. With all these things I always try to go down the least disruption route and try and keep the basic and the foundations of the team pretty solid. If we need to make subtle changes then we will do that so it affects one area and not five different areas. It wasn't ideal but it worked effectively and we created enough opportunities to win that game comfortably. That is always the key criteria to scoring goals as is not about how many players you have in the forward line or what kind of players. It is the chances you create as that's what gives you goals and I thought we were still quite good in that area.