Grading Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou’s first three months in charge

Since his appointment on June 10 there has been ups and downs, ins and outs, wins and losses. And goals, plenty of goals.

With a short break for international fixtures providing Postecoglou with his first real period of down-time since pre-season started in earnest, it seems the perfect time to take stock of how the new manager has fared in Glasgow's east end so far.

Here, The Celtic Way issues its report card on Postecoglou's first (almost) three months in charge.

The performances

Postecoglou's football philosophy is centred round passing, movement, relentless pressing and scoring more than your opponent. Seems simple, but it's not so easy to put into practice.

So it's pretty significant that the Hoops have already displayed how wholeheartedly they've bought into Postecoglou's system at this early juncture, with the dominant, goal-laden displays against Dundee and St Mirren unfairly written off in some quarters due to the supposed lack of quality opposition.

The four defeats Postecoglou has overseen since his arrival - the FC Midtjylland second leg, Hearts in the league-opener, the AZ Alkmaar second leg and the derby against Rangers - cannot be lumped together as one block.

The performance in the Midtjylland defeat - and indeed the tie in general - can probably be qualified by quoting our columnist Kevin McKenna, who in its aftermath declared "the team that Ange Postecoglou was forced to field was perhaps the least prepared Celtic squad ever assembled at this level".

Defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle in the Premiership curtain-raiser was a sucker-punch yet - like in Sunday's Glasgow derby - Celtic emerged with the feeling they created enough chances to win regardless of what their opponents did on the day.

Last week's Europa League play-off second leg against AZ in the Netherlands has so far been the only match it could be argued Celtic were second best.

The tidy Eredivise outfit passed the ball well and cut the Hoops open a few times but, in a resolute display, Postecoglou's men ensured that while they lost the game they won the tie.

That a difficult start and possessing only a small core of bonafide first-teamers has not dissuaded Postecoglou from inculcating his ideas in the players is to his enormous credit.

Grade: B

The results

That said, it doesn't look good to have lost two of your opening four league matches. That's a simple fact of life when you're in the Parkhead hotseat. 

Likewise, tasting defeat in a Glasgow derby is never acceptable even if on occasion it is understandable.

Sunday's 1-0 loss was eminently avoidable, however, and so was the Hearts league-opener for the same reasons as referred to in the Performances section. Being marked down for losing both matches is then, unfortunately, inescapable.

European results have been mixed, with the Midtjylland tie so early in his tenure and at a time when he had been given very little backing from the board in terms of transfers that most fans would agree he got a pass. 

Defeating FK Jablonec 4-2 in the Czech Republic kick-started a quite superb run of form which included two 6-0 wins, a kind-of revenge on Hearts, a notable clean-sheet win over AZ and a frankly silly total of 24 goals in just six games.

READ MORE: Celtic's best certainly yet to come in the Ange Postecoglou revolution - Kevin McKenna

Since then, while still securing Europa League group-stage football, the Hoops have lost two in a row again and thus rendered that 4-2 victory over Jablonec as their only competitive away win since February 14. That must improve, and quickly.

But perhaps a word of warning about not getting too carried away with the raw statistic of Postecoglou having taking charge of four defeats already... Neil Lennon's team from last season went nine unbeaten at the start of their league campaign and we all know how that one turned out so, in that respect, just two wins out of four with definite progress towards a new system and fresh faces does not constitute a disaster.

They do need a lengthy winning run soon, though.

Grade: B-

The recruitment

Celtic have signed a dozen players, including a new fan favourite in Kyogo Furuhashi, so on the face of it recruitment has been good.

However, squad depth is still an unavoidable issue in midfield and out wide. 

There is a real argument to be made that business was not concluded quickly enough either – for instance, no right-back was drafted in until Josip Juranovic's arrival in late August even though both first-team players in that position were sold at the start of the year.

That players had to quarantine and comply with Covid restrictions in general earlier this summer was obviously a hindrance - but it was also a known quantity, so the argument that there was little that could be done to get the requisite players in for key games such as Midtjylland doesn’t really hold water. That is, of course, on the club rather than Postecoglou in particular.

Admittedly, the loss of big personalities such as Scott Brown was always going to change the dressing-room dynamics while Kristoffer Ajer, Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie’s departures would hurt the overall quality in any squad too.

Nevertheless, the overall feeling is a positive one when it comes to the club's activities but the January window absolutely must be utilised properly to continue the rebuild and not let it stall.

Fundamentally, the squad depth issue is extremely hard to overlook when considering an overall grade and it's slightly too early to properly count any of the new signings as bonafide successes (or failures) yet so time will tell with this one.

Grade: C+

The media handling

From his casual "Listen mate" to the biting "I don't know what your version of catastrophic is". Postecoglou has already come away with a couple of crackers in his dealings with the media and proved himself to be a straight shooter from day one.

Fans tend to appreciate when managers or club officials give them an honest answer (whether in opinion or fact) and Postecoglou has done so since arriving in Glasgow.

Many of our early Points From The Presser articles touched on his continual prompting of the board to back him in the transfer market while he has also refused to shy away from shouldering responsibility for the poorer results his team have encountered so far and generally cut a confident, assured figure.

Of particular enjoyment are his acerbic responses to questions which he deems are clearly trying to lead him down a particularly sensational path, like when the BBC's Liam Macleod called the Champions League qualifying elimination to Midtjylland a "catastrophe".

"It's pretty strong language mate, I don't know what your version of catastrophic is but it certainly doesn't fit my definition of what happened tonight," Postecoglou replied, straight-faced. 

"This is obviously a disappointing night... but catastrophic to me means the end. This is far from the end."

Indeed.

Grade: A

Overall grade: B-

There seems to be plenty of enthusiasm among the fanbase for Postecoglou and his style of play.

Results not going Celtic’s way in the Champions League qualifiers were certainly not through his own doing and, while the Hearts and Rangers losses don’t look good on paper (they never do), even in the poorer displays so far this campaign Celtic have created enough chances to win.

There is, quite simply, a major rebuild going on and this includes a new system for players to adapt to, which makes some of the early successes on the pitch remarkable.

That the squad still lacks depth despite 12 new acquisitions means January reinforcements now become all the more important in a season where the Premiership winners could guarantee Champions League group-stage football next season.

A report card though this is, ‘Must do better’ is not the right phrase here. Let's try ‘Must continue as you have started’.