A surprise 1-0 defeat against Livingston on Monday morning (AEST) has seen some Celtic fans express fresh doubts about Australian manager Ange Postecoglou.
Livingston, who were previously winless in the Scottish Premiership, scored the decisive goal in the 25th minute via Andrew Shinnie with the Hoops unable to equalise despite having 80 per cent possession.
Celtic have now lost four of their last five games in all competitions with the club dropping to sixth in the league and four points behind early leaders Rangers.
There were plenty of doubts when Postecoglou was appointed to take charge of the club and his turbulent start to life in Scotland has failed to convince some fans he's up to the job.
“AngeBall “ seems to work great at home against the lesser teams. But does not work away from home. Can’t be stuck on Plan A all the time. This is Scottish football it needs grit to win games at times .
— Just an average Celtic fan. (@Celtic67Champs) September 19, 2021
No excuses. Simply unacceptable and the buck stops with the manager.
— Hoopybhoy 🇮🇪🇵🇸 (@PaddyBhoy1965) September 19, 2021
Mood changing now on Ange, he's got to shape up soon or its adios. Running out of excuses. Today was absolutely pitiful
— Godfrey Danyels (@godfreydanyels) September 19, 2021
This is what happens when you expect 1 man to fix the shambles created by others. We have the same back room staff and the same people sitting on the board. All guilty of turning what was a good thing, into a shambles.
— BKMacC 🏴 (@BKMacC) September 19, 2021
A major clear out is required.
I've been all aboard the Ange train but there's going to be times that he takes criticism and today is one of them days that was unbelievably poor performance could barely find passes to each other reminded me of away to AZ simply not good enough and lucky that sevco drew tbh
— Ste1888 (@Ste3812Murphy) September 19, 2021
The Hoops have been without a number of key players in recent weeks with captain Callum McGregor and Japanese star Kyogo Furuhashi once again missing against Livingston.
Postecoglou conceded his team simply didn't approach their latest match correctly and gave their opposition the perfect chance to capitalise.
"I’m disappointed for our supporters who made the trip out here and I’m disappointed for us because I just don’t think we gave a good account of ourselves today," Postecoglou told Celtic TV post-match.
"We didn’t start the game well, and once you do that, you allow the opposition to gain an advantage. They scored their goal and we just couldn’t find our way out of that hole.
"Today, the way we approached the game, our mentality going into it just wasn’t right. Maybe we bought into the fact that it’s a challenge playing here because of the surface, or because of any other reason.
"We started the game way too tentatively for us, we like to be aggressive from the start and we have been in all games so far, it was just in the first half we tried to ease ourselves into the game and you just can’t do that."
Celtic next face Raith Rovers at home in the Scottish League Cup quarter-finals on Friday morning (AEST) with Postecoglou hopeful of having a few players back from injury during a particularly busy period for the club.