Celtic lost 1-0 to Rangers on Sunday afternoon, and boss Ange Postecoglou has admitted he made a mistake over Kyogo Furuhashi’s position.
The Bhoys have been making progress under Postecoglou and were looking for a real statement win as they made the trip to Ibrox for the first Old Firm derby of the season.
Celtic created the best chance of the first half but Odsonne Edouard contrived to put the ball wide with the goal at his mercy.
Rangers made them pay, with Filip Helander’s towering header handing the Gers all three points at Ibrox.
Much has been made of Edouard’s miss. The French striker was given a start even though many still expect him to leave Celtic before the transfer deadline.
Edouard only came off the bench in Thursday’s win over AZ Alkmaar, so throwing him into the starting lineup was something of a risk – even though he has been a regular goalscorer throughout his time at Celtic.
Putting Edouard into the side meant moving Kyogo Furuhashi into a wide role, but Postecoglou did end up moving the Japanese ace back up front later on.
That saw Furuhashi carve out two great chances, and left many questioning just why he wasn’t utilised in that role from the start.
Postecoglou has now admitted to The Daily Record that he made a mistake and should have started Furuhashi up front.
The Australian noted that James Forrest’s absence played a part in the decision, but Celtic fans would have surely preferred Ryan Christie wide and Tom Rogic as a number 10 behind Furuhashi.
“I just thought Kyogo would be much more of a threat down the middle, to be honest I probably should have started him there to begin with but obviously with Forrest out we’re a little bit short in the wide areas,” said Postecoglou.
“That’s why we started with him out to the left but I knew with his speed getting Kyogo in the middle was going to cause them problems and that was the main reason. Partly it was them scoring the goal, obviously that changed things,” he added.
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