ANGE POSTECOGLOU has high hopes for his Celtic team this season.
The Hoops boss encourages all his players to have a go to get on the scoresheet and insists they must all participate in the scoring stakes irrespective of their position in the team.
Postecoglou, then, will be particularly pleased that four of his side’s 10 goals in their opening three Premiership encounters have come from defenders following set-plays.
Stephen Welsh claimed the champions’ first effort of the new campaign inside three minutes of the Flag Day encounter against Aberdeen when he flicked in Matt O’Riley’s right-wing corner-kick in the 2-0 victory with the flamboyant Filipe Jota applying the knock-out blow with a wonder strike in the second-half.
RISE AND SHINE…Moritz Jenz outjumps friend and foe to head in Celtic’s second goal in the 3-1 win at Dingwall.
On-loan Moritz Jenz rose to the occasion – literally – on his debut when he nodded in a left-wing cross from the Portuguese winger for the second strike in the 3-1 win over Ross County in Dingwall with Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada also getting in on the act.
And the German centre-back, who agreed a season-long deal from French outfit Lorient last month, collected his second Hoops goal with a brilliant overhead-kick in the 5-0 success over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park while Carl Starfelt at last got off the mark after over a year of firing blanks to hit his first goal for the club.
Kyogo, with the opener, Jota, with another breathtaking strike, and Giorgos Giakoumakis, with a stunning acrobatic effort, handed the Parkhead men their biggest winning margin since an identical scoreline against Ross County in Dingwall in September 2020.
CHEERS AND TEARS…Moritz Jenz races away to celebrate with the Celtic fans while Ross County keeper Ross Laidlaw has that sinking feeling.
Postecoglou has seen his team become a threat from set-plays which wasn’t the case last term when they were underachievers in deadball situations.
The Greek-Australian said: “It’s great for us that they’re contributing because we want to have multiple threats. We’re obviously not the biggest team in the world, but that doesn’t mean we can’t impose ourselves in the opposition box when the need arises.
“Welshy got a great goal in the first game, Moritz has got himself a couple and Carl got one on Sunday. It’s another bow in our armoury to hurt teams with and I think that’s important.
“I think that plays into the team we are. We get a lot of corners and set-pieces because of the pressure we put on opposition teams. That gives us the opportunity to get the ball into those dangerous areas so from our perspective it’s an important part of our game.”
Postecoglou, speaking to the Daily Record, added: “We want to be a team that’s got multiple threats going forward.
“Our centre-halves are contributing at the moment which is great, but it’s not just the starting eleven, guys coming off the bench.
HEAD OVER HEELS…Moritz Jenz sends an acrobatic effort into the Kilmarnock net for the third goal in the 5-0 Rugby Park rout.
“There’s no doubt about it, we want to be a team that scores goals and has multiple avenues to do that.
“There’s different ways you can score goals in a game of football and your position shouldn’t stop you from doing that.”
The Hoops are aiming to hit the goal trail again on Sunday when Hearts are the visitors.
For the record, the Tynecastle outfit scored more goals from set-pieces last season than the champions.
Celtic aim to change that statistic in this crusade.
