Celtic manager explains why he made so many changes

The Celtic starting XI on the day to face Bodo/Glimt in the second leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League tie must have surprised the majority of the fans. It was nowhere near the strongest, at least on paper, with the likes of Jota, Callum McGregor, Liel Abada, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josip Juranovic, Reo Hatate and others left on the bench. And it did not prove to be good enough to get an away win in Norway.

The game ended 2-0 in favour of Bodo/Glimt. And while it had been a close contest in the first leg, Celtic were completely outplayed in the second.

Most fans had expected Bodo/Glimt to be tough opponents for Celtic. But even then, nobody could have predicted that they would end up suffering a 5-1 defeat on aggregate against the Norwegian champions. It just goes to show how far they still have to go in Europe.

Talking about the changes in the line up, as reported by Football Scotland, Postecoglou told BT Sport:

"“For us it is just about approaching the game how we do every game – that’s the beauty about playing football the way we do, we try and win every game, we try and score goals every game and that’s what we have to do today.“We’ve done that home and away, that’s the approach we take so nothing really changes we just go into tonight and take it to a really good opposition.“It’s the reason we brought players in in January – to have a strong squad. We kinda got through the first-half of the year but we had a lot of injuries.“The guys I’m bringing in today have the energy, the enthusiasm and determination to do well and they’ll get an opportunity.“Every time I pick a team I think will win us the tie and that’s what we go with today.”"

Postecoglou explains several changes to Celtic playing XI vs Bodo/Glimt

As we already know, Celtic did not get a positive result against Bodo/Glimt away in Norway and it spelled the end of another European campaign for them.

After a positive Europa League group stage run, which saw them pick up 9 points in 6 games against Bayer Leverkusen, Real Betis and Ferencvaros, the UEFA Europa Conference League run was certainly a disappointment for the Hoops.

Now, it remains to be seen how things go from here on forward. The focus is certainly going to shift towards domestic competitions, particularly the Premiership, where Celtic currently sit at the top of the table, three points ahead of the Rangers. There is still quite some way to go though and it will be interesting to see if the club are able to finish the season by lifting the title.