Ange Postecoglou's best Celtic pre-season quotes as Hoops gear up for title defence

The Hoops have endured an unbeaten pre-season ahead of their Scottish Premiership opener against Aberdeen this Sunday.

Here, we look at the Australian’s post-match quotes from every pre-season outing and why, in his most recent interview, Postecoglou said his men are “in a good place” as they start their title defence.

Celtic’s first outing came against Austrian minnows Wiener Viktoria and it proved to be a comprehensive win for the Hoops as young Irish forward Jonjoe Kenny stole the show.

Postecoglou said: “It was OK, we’ve just started pre-season are the boys who’ve come in earlier and had an extra week under their belt. We aren’t going into these pre-season friendlies feeling fresh because we are pushing the boys hard.

“Considering all that, I thought the intent and effort was good, especially in the first-half and pleased with the overall effort.

“It about everything, it’s about football, tactics, and standards we set. Irrespective if it’s the first or last game of pre-season you want to make your mark with everything we do and everything I seen was positive today.

“We’ve had guys come in at different stages, so it’s an opportunity for us to bring in some of the younger boys and assess them. I think they’ve all acquitted themselves well and know what’s required at this level. They’ve been solid contributors and they done well today.”

Next up was a trip to the Allianz Stadion to face European regulars Rapid Vienna, which ended 3-3 in a six-goal thriller.

“It was a good game," the manager said in the aftermath. "It didn’t feel like a friendly game. Both sides were going at it and it’s exactly what you need as sometimes friendly games can be passive but I thought both halves were going at it and it was a good contest.

“It felt like a real game and whenever you play away from, especially in Europe, it’s always a bit of a challenge. We done well in some parts and there’s parts that we need to improve on. Overall, it was a good contest and that’s most important. The players condition is exactly what I expected as we are in the very stages of pre-season and it’ll only get better.

“We need to expose the boys to real football and real match pressure as we want to make sure we’re ready in three weeks’ time. Sometimes friendlies become a wee bit meaningless but today’s was a good one.”

The Hoops’ third pre-season clash came against Czech side Banik Ostrava, who created an electric atmosphere as the club celebrated its 100th anniversary.

There were four different scorers that day for Celtic with Kyogo Furuhashi, Matt O’Riley, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Liel Abada all getting on the scoresheet.

“It was a cracking atmosphere," Postecoglou acknowledged afterwards. "It was a big occasion for the club and it was great for us to be a part of it. Again, it gave us the feeling of a real contest and it was great for our guys.

"The game was OK, we started a bit slow and in general we were quite sloppy with some of our passing. The flip side of that was that our good moments were really good. It was another good contest for us.

“In the pre-season we don’t have any competitive games this year, and I didn’t want to play friendly games, particularly if they’re not in big stadiums in front of crowds. The last two games have been perfect for us.

“There were shades of early pre-season at times and the players are working overly hard at training so they’re not going to be buzzing going into games. I thought after a sloppy start it started to pick up and there’s areas we can improve on.

“The key thing is that we got some good training into the guys and they have had decent match minutes into the legs, so from our point of view it’s been a really good camp. The players have come back in with a good attitude and the dressing room has a lot of energy."

It was a return to Parkhead for the fourth pre-season outing as Celtic were held by EFL Championship side Blackburn Rovers.

Postecoglou was looking on the bright side of the draw, which came amid some tasty challenges from the Lancashire outfit.

“I thought the first-half was really good, both from a competitive and performance view," said the Australian. “Both teams were right for it from the outset and we obviously conceded early but, after that, I thought we responded really well and had a got a grip of the game. We attacked well, created plenty and defended well.

“The second half got a bit scrappy but that can happen when you make a lot of changes at half-time. It wasn’t a great exercise overall but that’s the challenge with these games.

“I think our good spells in the first half showed the work that we’ve tried to do so far. We are still two weeks from the season but we done a fair bit of work in Austria and here. It’s about getting the boys in the best shape possible.

“What we want to have been a group of players ready for when we play Aberdeen here, that’s the whole point. There’s a lot more time to put more work in and hopefully we can be even further ahead of where I think we need to be."

A flight to Poland was next as Celtic celebrated club legend Arthur Boruc’s farewell match in Warsaw against Legia - that also proved to be an action-packed encounter.

"There was some good stuff there and some not so good stuff," Postecoglou declared after his side let a two-goal lead slip to draw 2-2. "It was a bit of a mixed bag but another useful exercise.

“The first half was good but it was glass half full stuff. We played some good football but we will be better. We’re at the stage of the pre-season where the boys will make some mistakes that are not normally there. The point of the exercise at the moment is not to win games of football, it’s to prepare a team to win games of football. Today was another process for us so we are ready

“I think we’ve shown the right characteristics from the first day. We purposely built this pre-season programme to prepare us for what lies ahead. From my perspective, the boys have worked really hard from the outset and we need to keep on doing that right up until the first game.”

Last but not least, Celtic put in a solid performance to round off an undefeated pre-season schedule as they blew away EFL Championship hopefuls Norwich City.

In the aftermath of this one opposition manager Dean Smith said the Hoops looked like a “Premier League team in the making”.

Postecoglou was typically composed, however, and made a point of not getting too excited about the performance even if there were some special displays.

“It was a good run out and I think the victory is important as well," he said. "I thought it was a real solid hit out there and we controlled for large spells and worked hard defensively to deny them as well. It was good to see after our substitutions came on we kept the same intensity and didn’t drop off.

“I think Reo’s been good but I think all of our players are enjoying a pre-season as we threw a lot of them in there last season and they done very well. However, my belief is that they can do even better and that’s why we were very keen to retain the players we had last year and build around it.

“I think we’ve had a decent pre-season campaign in terms of every game has been competitive which is important and for the most part we’ve came through it unscathed and not picked up any major injuries. I think we’re in a pretty good place.”

• Celtic kick off their Premiership campaign against Aberdeen on Sunday (4.30pm)