Ange Postecoglou's full Q+A ahead of Celtic v Motherwell

There were reports earlier this week about Cameron Carter Vickers suggesting he might need surgery before the season out on his knee injury. Are you able just to bring us up to speed with the situation? Are we likely to see him playing again this season?

Cameron's trained all week and he will play tomorrow. The only reason he didn't play last week was because of the surface. I mentioned that before the game. He's trained all week and he's ready to go and from a fitness perspective, nothing else changes. All the other lads are closer and training but they won't make it this weekend.

Is he likely to have to undergo surgery?

Mate, he's playing tomorrow. He's playing tomorrow. So that's where it begins and ends. I can't predict the future. If he gets through tomorrow, he'll play next week. So that's how it is.

In terms of the game tomorrow, if you win that, that's eighteen wins in a row that goes past the 17-match winning run set by Brendan Rodgers and would see you really starting to close in on the clubs' record. How aware are you of all of that? Is that the kind of thing as a manager and as a group, you look at or you're motivated by, and what do you make of all of that?

No, it's not a focus for us. Obviously, the consistency of the lads in terms of performance and result and these kinds of things get mentioned along the way. We've been really good at just sort of focusing on what the next challenge is because the reality of it is all that becomes irrelevant if we don't win. You can look beyond tomorrow and say if we do this and that and the other but unless we win tomorrow, all those kinds of things dissipate. I think our main motivation and our motivation always is that we want to play well tomorrow, can we play our best football and get another win, particularly at home in front of our supporters and score some goals and get closer to our overall target, which is to win the title again.

What are you expecting from Motherwell tomorrow as they've got a new manager in place since the last time you played them at Fir Park?

Yeah, that's not unusual, though, to be fair, I think most teams we are playing have got a new manager these days. Stuart's done awfully well, to be fair to him. I think they obviously made a decision on a change of manager. I still think they are always a very competitive side anyway. But Stuart certainly gave them a real lift and their form is really good and they're actually creating a lot of chances. Kevin Van Veen's been outstanding up front for them. So it is a good challenge for us. But you know we're at home and you kind of know we haven't got too many more home games to go. So we want to make sure that we put on a good performance. for our supporters, and as I said before, you know, it edges us closer to our ultimate goal.

I know you say it's about one game at a time for you. You've obviously got the Scottish Cup semi-final next weekend in terms of the players who are out still out injured are you hoping that they'll be back for that game?

Yeah. I don't really think about it, to be honest. I'm worried about tomorrow. If we get through tomorrow and then we'll see. Hopefully, we get through tomorrow unscathed. Then we'll work through the week next week and say he's available for the game then. But right now we're just focused on making sure we have a strong team out there. To win tomorrow.

This is the last time you'll play before the split. Do you think in this section these 11 games, having won them all, you think it's the best football you've played?

I mean, I don't know about the split or what sort of the timelines you're talking about but I think I've already said sort of since the World Cup, I think our form and our football's been really strong and I think it's been better than the first half of the year when I thought we were still really excellent. As I said, the key for us now is to finish the season strong. I mean, irrespective of what we've done so far. We've got six games to go in the league plus the cup semi-final next week and if we can finish with our best form now, it'll put us in a good place because as I said, since the start of the year, we've been really consistent and getting stronger every week.

Just going back to Motherwell, you're talking there about how often managers change in the top flight in football in general. How difficult is that for you and your coaching staff to sort of get to grips quickly with a new manager? Is it hard? Do you feel that managers come in and change much at teams?

This depends on the sort of manager and depends on the circumstances they've taken over. The reality is they're very rarely is there a major shift unless you know there's a transfer window in place and where the team can change during that time. I think there's more sort of emphasis on it, if a manager's gone through a transfer window, then you know that he's had an opportunity then to implement some part of his style. That may determine a bit of a shift, but I don't think ones that happen quickly. And mean that there's too much of a change in the team. You're going to face.

How pleased have you been with the way the January signings have settled in over the last few months and the impact they have made so far?

They've all been good. They've all contributed and they've all settled in really well within the football club and just generally with life here in Scotland. That's the most important thing for us is to make sure that they've adjusted to everything they need to so they can then perform when required. I think they have all made an impact and made a contribution to the team. Again in every window, we want to try and come out of it a little bit stronger than what we've gone into it and I think that's certainly the case for January.

This is almost the end of your second season obviously and it has been a success when you look back is there one thing that you can pick out that you've enjoyed most about Scottish football?

Not really at the moment because you know sort of on how you said our season has been a success, but we haven't finished it yet and we'll determine the success or otherwise of it at the end of it. From my perspective, that's where all my focus is. I don't really think about things beyond that in terms of reflection or I think there's enough at the moment going on with whether that's with what's left of this season or beginning to plan for next season. All these kinds of things take up your time and yeah, I guess the time for reflection will come. Once this season is done but right now we haven't really changed anything we do. We know there's a game tomorrow that's the most important thing on everyone's minds, including mine, and anything outside of that. We tend not to spend too much time thinking about other stuff.

Could I just ask you about the women's team under Fran Alonso? They've obviously got a big semi-final at the weekend and they're back in their own title race. Does it show just how well the club is performing overall with the success of both teams on the pitch?

Look, it's pleasing. I mean, Fran has been doing an outstanding job for a number of years now and the girls every year are looking to improve and you can see where their ambitions lay in terms of trying to bring more silverware to the club. It's great to see that each team has its own individual journey and individual way of doing things. You can see that within I guess all the clubs will represent as represented us this year whether that's Fran with the women's team or the B team, there's been a real focus to try and be the best we can be and hopefully, the girls finish off the season strong and then bring some more silverware to the club.

How much do we recognise the team thank them and look at what they've achieved just to help that feel-good factor in the squad?

I think from my perspective like I've said my role within that is not to reflect, but that doesn't mean that I don't want our supporters to enjoy the journey and certainly appreciate what the lads are doing on a weekly basis and even the players themselves. The reason I kind of don't spend too much time thinking of what's gone on in the past is that I've been long enough in the game to know that things can unravel pretty quickly if you're not really laser-focused on what's next. Along the way, I think you need to enjoy it and appreciate it. Look a big part for me is as much as we get defined by success, and success means winning trophies and winning games of football. I guess the most pleasing thing for me is the number of goals we've scored because I still think that's still the best part of football for me.

It goes beyond winning because, you know, with winning that sometimes you can win and not really enjoy a game of football. But no one ever does not enjoy a goal, even the most scrambling, ugliest of goals still get celebrated. So I love the fact that if there's one sort of record I'll be most proud of it is if we can score more goals than has ever been scored before by the football club. I know how much joy that's brought everybody, players, everyone involved supporters, I said the backdrop of that is we've got to win games of football for sure and win trophies. That's always going to be the measure, especially at this football club, but just football in general, I love the joy goals bring and the more we score the happier I am.

Tomoki Iwata has been really impressive - how pleased have you been in relation to how well he's settled down to the club and the team when he's been given the opportunity?

Yeah, look I am really pleased. He's one of those that I knew really well because I've already managed him before so I kind of knew what I was getting. Tomoki or Tomo, as the boys are calling him as they got to turn him Scottish somehow! Anyway, he's just a really strong will determined footballer who I always knew would always try and be the best he can be. So even before I brought him in here, I knew that he would add to our environment just because of the way he goes about things. If you ask the lads I think they'll all tell you the same thing. He's just an unbelievable trainer and he is unbelievable in the gym as he does everything right, which I knew he would, but he's also a quality player and I think he brings something different to our midfield. He's a little bit of a hybrid.

Even though he looks like he sort of plays defensive midfield. His background is that he almost started as a wing-back then he became a sort of central defender in a back three with a licence to go forward. He's got immense running power and is really strong. He's very mobile and he's technically very good on the ball. I like the fact that when we play him in the midfield he'll keep growing, obviously once he adjusts more, I think you'll find he'll be one of these players who will play that role very differently from anyone else. I was starting to see elements of that and I've been a bit probably cautious about how much game time I've given him because I remember last year just overloading the guys who had just come off a full Asian season. That can be to their detriment and easing him in means that he'll finish strong. Whatever games we've got left he'll be great and then he can do a full pre-season with us and be ready for next year. I am really pleased with him but probably the least surprised about how he's going because I knew what I was getting before he came.