Ange Postecoglou suggests he might not have been forceful enough over transfers

Ange Postecoglou suggested he might not have been forceful enough in his demands for new signings as took responsibility for Celtic’s latest Champions League failure.

Celtic missed out on the group stages for a fourth year running as a 2-1 extra-time defeat by Midtjylland consigned them to a 3-2 aggregate loss and a Europa League qualifier against Czech side Jablonec.

Celtic have made five summer signings but two of them are in quarantine and another two, young former Sheffield Wednesday pair Osaze Urhoghide and Liam Shaw, did not get off the bench in Denmark.

The only new arrival to feature was 19-year-old Liel Abada, who could not build on his goalscoring debut in a quiet display.

Vasilis Barkas let in a soft goal in the first leg (Jeff Holmes/PA)

Postecoglou had a back four with an average age of 21, only had two fit strikers, and replaced Vasilis Barkas with Scott Bain as Celtic’s failure to address their goalkeeping problems again cost them over the two legs.

Few Celtic fans will blame the manager, who expressed frustration over the club’s “hesitation” in the transfer market before the first leg, but the Australian shouldered the burden.

“I take responsibility,” he said. &Ldquo;I’m the person who has been put in charge. We haven’t got players in, I obviously haven’t done a good enough job convincing people we needed to bring people in.

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“I’m not going to shy away from it. I don’t say that because I’m some kind of martyr, I just think that’s my responsibility, that’s why I was brought in.

Liel Abada was the only new signing to start (Jeff Holmes/PA)

“I have been trying to be as forceful as I can about what we need to bring in, and the challenges we have had are well chronicled.

“Irrespective of the result tonight, we still need reinforcements. We had a really young squad out there, young players on the bench. It’s not a situation we need to be in.”

When asked if some people had not understood how thin his squad was and the urgency of the situation, Postecoglou said: “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, I don’t know.

Celtic signing Kyogo Furuhashi is in quarantine (Hussein Sayed/AP)

“I think I have been pretty consistent in saying we need more players. The club is working hard to get those players in. I have talked endlessly about the challenges we face.

“Our supporters just want to see us bring in the reinforcements that we need, and I have just got to keep reinforcing my views on it as strongly as I can.”

Celtic will rue a number of key moments over both legs, including Nir Bitton’s needless first-leg red card and a huge blunder from Barkas that gifted the Danes a Parkhead equaliser.

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