Celtic news: Pundit slams Ange Postecoglou and says ‘put embarrassment to bed’
Noel Whelan has suggested Ange Postecoglou will be kicking himself after not naming a full-strength Celtic XI against Bodo/Glimt.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the former Aberdeen striker admitted it was a “strange” decision to leave some of the Hoops top stars out on Thursday night.
The likes of Callum McGregor, Josip Juranovic, Reo Hatate and Liel Abada were all named on the bench in Norway.
Squad players Nir Bitton, Liam Scales and Stephen Welsh took their places in the starting XI.
Celtic were beaten 2-0 on the night, with Bodo/Glimt running out 5-1 winners on aggregate.
Reacting to Postecoglou’s team selection Whelan told Football Insider’s Russell Edge: “It’s a strange one when you know that you need a goal and you’re two goals behind.
“You’re going across, you want to put the disappointment and embarrassment to bed and to reclaim that spot in the next round. I think he probably wanted to do that.
“I don’t know why you’d leave out some of your better players. It’s not like you need to rest them because Rangers certainly didn’t.
“They put out their best XI. An XI that was going to compete with a better side than who Celtic were playing.
“It’s one of those where I think you look back and think you’ve missed an opportunity to get yourself in the hat.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of disappointment around there, especially when you see that Rangers have gone through to the next round.
“Big clubs want to fight for big competitions. Unfortunately, they’ve got themselves knocked out of one.”
Celtic will look to bounce back to winning ways in Sunday’s trip to Hibernian.
The Bhoys currently sit three points clear at the top of the table.
In other news, ex-official slaughters VAR after controversial Celtic footage analysed.