Matt McKay: 'Celtic fans will enjoy Ange Postecoglou's football'

| 31 May 2021

Matt McKay: 'Celtic fans will enjoy Ange Postecoglou's football'

The Yokohama F Marinos boss is frontrunner for the vacant managerial post at Celtic and former Rangers man Matt McKay spoke positively about Ange Postecoglou.

Former Rangers midfielder Matt McKay believes Celtic fans will enjoy Ange Postecoglou's football philosophy if he takes over at Parkhead.

The Yokohama F Marinos boss is frontrunner for the vacant managerial post at Celtic after their interest in recruiting former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe ended on Friday.

McKay, who played under Postecoglou at Brisbane Roar and with Australia, had a short spell at Ibrox between 2011 and 2012 – playing only three times – and spoke about the 55-year-old's outlook on the game.

He told Sky Sports: "I will be honest, he is more attacking style, he really is.

"And if they score seven and the other team scores six then he is happy. He has done that throughout.

"He is not scared, he wants to get out there and take it to teams and from my knowledge of Scottish football that is something that they will enjoy.

"We don't get too much of the J-League in Australia but they have achieved the title which they hadn't won for a long time and they have done it playing a really attractive brand of football.

"He did that at Brisbane, back in 2010, where we won a title straight away with him in charge.

"Given time, he will play an attacking style of football, possession-based but fairly direct as well.

"He is a really good guy, he works extremely hard and he likes a big challenge."

The prospect of Postecoglou taking over at Celtic Park has elicited mixed feelings among the Hoops supporters.

McKay, perhaps with a nod to his time at Rangers who stopped Celtic making it 10 successive Premiership title wins this season, added: "Look, I understand that he is going to be faced with a big challenge there and I know that maybe people don't rate Australian football or Australian coaches. But he likes a challenge.

"Trust me, he will love that people are doubting him already, that he is not a big enough name.

"Obviously they are at stage where they need a massive rebuild after what happened last season with Rangers' dominance so he will come up with that clean slate and set up a team that will go close – but maybe not close enough."

McKay has little but positive memories of his time working under Greece-born Postecoglou.

He said: "We won a title together at Brisbane Roar, which was a first A-League title for Brisbane and then also at the national team.

"He took me to a World Cup where, yes, we lost our games there but we really stood up against some of the biggest teams in the world, we had Spain, Netherlands and Chile.

"Then we won the Asian Cup in 2015 on home soil, so that was pretty memorable.

"He is a really good guy, he will challenge you, he will challenge everyone in the squad to be better."