Ange Postecoglou’s first season in charge at Celtic is going much better than most would have predicted. After the opening 16 Scottish Premiership matches, the Hoops are level with the Rangers’ on 36 goals scored and have the edge over the Ibrox side with 10 goals conceded, compared to their 14. Their Glasgow rivals do have a four-point lead though, which is what matters the most, however, there is plenty of time for that to change.
Even with injury troubles, Celtic are still finding ways to win. Their most recent domestic victory came at Tannadice Park against Dundee United. The 3-0 scoreline could have easily been much bigger had the Hoops been more clinical in front of goal. They completely dominated the match.
That performance on Sunday caught the eye of former Celtic player and current Dundee United star, Charlie Mulgrew, who was full of praise for Postecoglou’s side after the match.
As reported by The Herald, Mulgrew said about Celtic:
"“We came into the game and didn’t expect it to be that one-sided. But that can happen against Celtic. They are a good team.“We probably didn’t get close enough to them. But it’s hard. It’s easy to say we didn’t get close enough but there’s a lot of spaces and a lot of good movement. It’s not by accident that, so fair play to their manager and his team because they played some right good stuff.“They took positions all the time. When they had the ball one pops out of position and another pops in. It’s not easy to deal with."
Mulgrew makes exciting claim about Postecoglou’s Celtic side
Mulgrew was a regular for Celtic for several seasons and even came through the youth ranks at the club. He has been on the dominant side of these sort of results his fair share of times. Now though, he saw it from the other perspective.
The implementation of Postecoglou’s system at Celtic appears to be getting better with time, as was expected. The system involves a lot of movement without the ball. That allows for dynamic play and goals from a variety of players.
It is not often that a right back scores four goals in the first half of a season. But that’s exactly what Anthony Ralston has done this time around, taking everyone by surprise.
Overall, as a team, it has been a tremendous improvement from last season. It is an exciting and enjoyable style of football that has certainly been embraced by the players and supporters alike. Now, the club just need to strengthen their squad so that they can put up a sustainable title challenge.