Celtic boss frontrunner Ange Postecoglou admits he has been forced to rethink his playing style this season.
The 55-year-old is now the bookies' favourite to be named Neil Lennon's permanent successor after talks with first choice Eddie Howe spectacularly collapsed.
Postecoglou has been managing in Japan for the past three seasons but earned his stripes in his homeland where he was a major success with Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory, before impressing with the national team.
He has been famed with his A-League winning side for a high-press mixed with a passing style, but admitted earlier this year that he has refined the outlook while with Yokohama F Marinos.
In a parallel with Celtic 's nightmare Premiership campaign last term, Postecoglou was forced back to the drawing board in the J-League in front of empty stadiums and in the midst of mounting defensive injury woes.
In fact, in an interview earlier this year, he feels he could have offered Jurgen Klopp advice as Liverpool struggled to reach the top four in a horror Premier League title defence.
He told Optus Sport: “We probably went too far in trying to play such a high intensity game in what was a really brutal schedule.
“It is something I am looking at this year in scaling back – not the way we want to dominate games in possession, but in the way we press and how aggressive we are.
"I could’ve written a script of how Liverpool are going to go this year.
“It doesn’t need much analysis. Any team trying to play that level of high intensity football and that sort of football would suffer under those circumstances. Southampton is another one.
"All those teams, Wolves another: two things are consistent with all those teams that have a big drop off.
“First, they try to play a high intensity game particularly in a defensive sense.
“Second, they’ve had disruptions at centre-back – that is almost a sure fire way of not being able to deliver.
"For me this year it is about being a little bit smarter in how we press, understanding there may be times in a game it might work in our favour to let teams have the ball, draw them out rather than be super aggressive with what we do."
