Winning ugly and winning with panache; Ange Postecoglou has made his feelings clear on the football he wishes to implement at Celtic Park. However, as it currently stands for Celtic it is all simply about the winning.

Already in his four-month regime the Greek-Australian has spoken of the influence of his father and the kind of swashbuckling football he liked to watch and the lessons that were absorbed in his formative years.

There has been a different kind of learning curve in Glasgow these past few months. There has been a sobering realisation of the full extent of the surgery required on Celtic that has come in the defeats to Hearts, Rangers and Livingston with the fragility of confidence from a team that finished so far off the pace last season evident in the manner of some of the performances.

Still, there was optimism in the way in which Celtic played from middle-to-front when Kyogo and Callum McGregor were fully fit. Both are integral to forcing a return to that kind of fluency and to restoring the sense of Celtic carrying significant menace when going forward.

Given the lapses in defensive concentration and the flakiness that has undermined so much of the work that goes on in the final third, Celtic need that clinical touch to inoculate themselves against moments of uncertainty at the back.

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They will be tested against a Motherwell side whose confidence has risen as the season has gone on. With strong results and strong home performances, Graham Alexander’s side will feel that the game against Celtic carries little pressure given that the expectation is all on the visitors.

Celtic’s hand will strengthen over the next month with James Forrest and Christopher Jullien adding experience and solidity to the side while Josip Juranovic and Greg Taylor will also ensure that there are other options available. Financially Celtic are in a robust enough position that they will be capable of adding to the squad in the January transfer window but the key element is they remain in a position where they have not allowed themselves to become detached.

To that end, it is vital that they conjure up a run of consistent results that not only fosters a level of resilience and momentum within the side but ensures they make up ground that was lost in the opening stages of the campaign.

How they do it comes a distinct second to ensuring that they find a way to do it.