Celtic striker Giorgos Giakoumakis has discussed Ange Postecoglou’s motivational message when he was struggling with injury in the first half of the season.
Giakoumakis ended the Scottish Premiership season as the club’s top scorer. However, he would only net once during the first 5 months of the campaign after his £2.5m summer move [Sky Sports].
Instead, Kyogo Furuhashi was wowing supporters as Giakoumakis struggled to be an efficient, reliable back-up option. He was struggling for both form and an injury-free run in the team.
And as he reflected on his debut campaign in Scotland, the Greece international has revealed Ange’s influence during his early struggles.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, Giakoumakis said: “When I was injured I was putting some pressure on myself because I had not yet proved myself here. He just said to me that I needed to stay calm, keep believing in myself and that whenever I came back I would be crucial for the team.
“The first part of the season was not what I expected. I had an injury. I had a lack of pre-season and so I didn’t play that much. To end as the top scorer in the league is something really important for me. I’m really happy with that and I wish we had ten minutes more because I don’t like to share!
“I need to be healthy. Whenever we start the season I always pray to God to be healthy so I can be fit and be myself. If I can be myself I can score a lot of goals and help the team. I’ve never had a particular number in mind. Every single game, whether I start or not, I want to score. That’s my target. I hope that next season I can score many more than I did this year.”
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Giorgos Giakoumakis was backed by Ange during Celtic injury struggles
There’s absolutely non denying that Giakoumakis was strongly backed by the manager even when he failed to make an early impression. The manager was never one to strip opportunities away from him when he returned to action, and instead placed plenty of faith in the former VVV-Venlo man.
It would’ve been easy for the manager to turn to other options. He could’ve brought in another striker in the January window after Kyogo’s hamstring blow in December. After all, there were many who were extremely pessimistic about the thought of Giakoumakis leading the line.
But he’s shown himself to be a totally different option to what we currently have. He’s shown himself to be an absolute warrior and someone that can do the physical stuff in the final third.
Now, he goes into the summer as a key player for Celtic. He gets the chance to put his feet up for a bit knowing that he’ll be an instrumental cog for us in our UEFA Champions League campaign.
Celtic fans, meanwhile, now have plenty of trust in the player. They now have a firm grip of what his attributes are and how they can help the team. The pressure has been taken off Giakoumakis after what must’ve been a stressful start for him.
Hopefully, he kicks into an even more impressive level next season.
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