DEFIANT Ange Postecoglou says he is up for the fight of turning Celtic’s poor form around, and that his approach will ultimately be vindicated when he delivers an exciting and successful team.

The Celtic manager has come in for criticism for failing to show pragmatism during his side’s recent run of just two wins from their last eight games in all competition.

But Postecoglou says that his single-minded approach will eventually pay off for Celtic, and that he won’t rest until that happens.

“I don’t want to switch off,” Postecoglou said. “I’m really passionate about this. I want to create an exciting football team and I’m not going to shy away from the fight. I love it.

“It’s all-consuming for me but that doesn’t mean that it gets me in a space where I’m not positive or not thinking clearly or not enjoying it. I love it and bizarrely I love this part of it, which people won’t understand. But I’m hoping that in six months’ time, when they look back, they will know why I have been so resolute and persistent about what we are doing.”

Postecoglou added though that he can no longer shield his players from the expectations of playing for Celtic following the 4-0 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night, and he has told them they have to want success as much as he and the fans do.

“This part of the process is not new to me,” he said.

“You kinda know going into it that it’s going to be a hell of a challenge because we have changed 50 percent of the squad, we’ve had significant injuries to key players, we are trying to change the way we play, all of those things. But I love that bit. I enjoy that bit.

“I don’t want to shield the players from the expectations of this football club and the expectations on them. They’ve got to want this as much as I do and as much as the fans do and they’ve got to want to turn it around.

“It’s not about enjoying it, for me. I love this. This is what I’m passionate about and I’ll make sure that we get to where we want to get to. But instead of just dragging people along I need them to join in on where we’re heading and lead from the front.

“Getting Cal (McGregor) and Kyogo (Furuhashi) back, they are two who are firmly on board and want to drive this forward and won’t accept lowering our standards. I think that will help us.”