Ange Postecoglou is adamant Celtic have full give attention to Hibs and coping with the edgy Easter Highway ambiance.
The Parkhead boss, who is about to make Japanese midfielder Tomoki Iwata, left, his third seize of the winter switch window, takes his staff to Leith tomorrow evening aiming to increase their Premiership successful run to 12 video games. Understandably, the minds of supporters will drift past the conflict within the capital in the direction of the top-of-the-table showdown in opposition to Rangers at Ibrox on Monday.
However Postecoglou’s staff have been adept at holding their eye firmly on the rapid duties in hand and the concentrated boss says it’s pointless to do anything. He mentioned: “You possibly can’t as a result of, should you don’t have the precise efficiency and end result in opposition to Hibs, then what does it matter what the sport after is? You'll be upset. So, like I mentioned final week, our focus is at all times on what's subsequent.
“What's subsequent for us is to prepare for a tricky sport in Edinburgh in opposition to a very good opponent and ensuring that we proceed our good kind.”
Postecoglou’s staff hammered Lee Johnson’s males 6-1 earlier within the season, however the supervisor is aware of it’ll be robust at Easter Highway. The champions had been held on the dwelling of Hibs in February through the run-in to final time period’s title success and the Celtic gaffer is conscious of the potential pitfalls if his staff aren't in high kind.
Postecoglou defined: “I feel will probably be a tricky sport. We performed there final season, it was a draw and it was robust for us.
“It’ll be the identical. While you go there, it’s a very good stadium, they get an enormous crowd, it seems like an enormous sport and it’s at all times a very good ambiance, so you already know in these sorts of video games it's at all times going to be a bit edgy.
“You possibly can see what Lee Johnson is attempting to do. He's attempting to get the staff to play a sure method and he in all probability doesn’t have the personnel for the time being that wants to do this.
“However he’s sticking to it and, with a few extra home windows, I feel you’ll see increasingly of what he's attempting.
“They positively have some attacking threats, particularly with Kevin Nisbet again as effectively. For us, it'll be a very good problem. Once more, what’s actually essential is what we do.
“If we preserve enjoying our soccer, preserve bettering, and be as sturdy as we might be, we all know we're robust to beat.”
Postecoglou doesn't but have new signings Alistair Johnston and Yuki Kobayashi at his disposal for the sport attributable to their January 1 registration timeframe, however the duo ought to be obtainable for the sport at Ibrox after their transfers.
Iwata is about to bear a medical this week and his work allow is believed to be already in place. The 25-year-old will signal on a mortgage deal initially with an choice to purchase for slightly below £1 million – just like the deal that introduced Daizen Maeda from Yokohama 12 months in the past shut.
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