Postecoglou contributes to Celtic’s Old Firm undoing

The familiar frailties in Celtic’s defence, plus a tactical error by their manager, allowed Rangers to edge the first Old Firm derby of the season with a Filip Helander header, despite the champions being outplayed in a first half which should have ended in their rivals’ favour.

ad Odsonne Edouard not blown the outstanding chance of the opening 45 minutes, the Hoops would have led at the interval and Ange Postecoglou would have been justified in keeping him on the field.

Instead, the Celtic boss persisted with Edouard, while Kyogo Furuhashi, playing wide left to accommodate him, had his poorest game since arriving at the club.

Rangers profited from the half-time readjustment, which prised control of the midfield from the visitors, and saw them exploit Celtic’s weakness at set-pieces.

Covid denied Rangers their manager, Steven Gerrard, and – due to injury or positive tests – both of their first-choice goalkeepers, Allan McGregor and Jon McLaughlin, captain James Tavernier, Nathan Patterson and Calvin Bassey.

First blood should have been drawn by Celtic when Furuhashi, who otherwise had been in the custody of Leon Balogun, rolled a cutback to the unmarked Edouard, but from six yards out he could not adjust his body and the ball clipped his heel and spun behind.

At the interval, the obvious course of action for Postecoglou was to replace Edouard with a midfielder, switch Ryan Christie to the left of a front three and bring Furuhashi into his most profitable position. He didn’t.

Rangers took advantage and pushed into Celtic’s midfield space and the breakthrough came midway through the second half, when they forced a corner and, with Celtic defending zonally, nobody picked up Helander’s run to connect with Borna Barisic’s cross to head home.

Only then did Postecoglou make the obvious switches – Ismaila Soro for Edoaurd and Tom Rogic for David Turnbull, with Christie pushed wide. Within seconds, Furuhashi burst through the heart of defence, but Robby McCrorie did well to block his effort.

When Furuhashi next got behind the home defence, he was again denied by McCrorie, to the fury of Christie, who had stolen into space at the far post.

Moments later Furuhashi squandered another chance when he had a clear sight of goal but chose to play a cutback into the box.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]