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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
Sport
Mark Pirie

Ange Postecoglou delivers 'rusty' Celtic stars verdict as he issues Parkhead player standards demand

Ange Postecoglou has called for huge improvements from his Celtic players despite another pre-season victory over Charlton.

Goals from Karamoko Dembele and Albian Ajeti netted in the first half for the Premiership side before the Addicks mounted a late fightback as ex-Hearts man Conor Washington found the net.

The Premiership side dominated possession throughout the game and impressed during the 90 minutes, however, the new boss was determined to set the bar high for his players.

Washington's goal breathed new life into Charlton who piled the pressure on late in the game, and the gaffer wanted more from his players after two wins from two.

Assessing the game Postecoglou told Celtic TV: "It was ok.

"It was another pre-season game, the first half was quite good we controlled the game pretty well (but) second half we got a little bit stretched and chaotic.

"To be fair, for a lot of these guys it's their first game for quite a while but they worked hard and I guess that's the main thing.

"I think this was just mainly some match minutes in the boys' legs, some of them haven't played for quite a while and looked rusty in terms of their touch but that'll come.

(SNS Group)

"We're working hard at training as well which probably has an effect on them in terms of fatigue for the games but the most important thing for me is they're trying to do the things we're talking about and as long as we do that we can progress."

When quizzed about the remainder of the pre-season fixture list with the Champions League qualifiers on the horizon, he added: "We've got to improve on everything.

"It's only beginnings for us so all we can focus on is day-to-day a little bit of improvement, there's another game coming up against Bristol City and we'll build toward that.

"Hopefully we'll improve our performance a little bit from today.

"Like I said, they all worked hard. For me what's more important is seeing the intent of the whole team.

"We're trying to keep the ball, we're trying to be aggressive, when we lost the ball I thought we had a better shape - particularly in the first half - in terms of being compact.

"So those are the key things."

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