Callum McGregor

They did a job on him, sometimes other players need to step up to the plate. When a team are so focussed on stopping one player it should give more space to the other midfielders but we were so poor in there today.

 

He was always going to put himself forward and make sure he was one of the penalty takers, but his last 3 I think for us and I think maybe 1 for Scotland he’d missed. Before then he was excellent at them, but standing up 2nd in line and doing that, when he’s largely stayed away from them since missing a few. * iron will. And I had zero doubts when he was the 2nd man up even with knowing he was on a poor run with penalties. He’s somebody I have complete confidence and faith in, always

 

Love him, one of my favourite players ever and an excellent leader..

But, I'm wondering if we're starting to see the start of his decline.. seems crazy saying that with his goals from outside the box this season and how consistent we've been.

He looks sluggish at times, in Europe and is getting caught more domestically than he used to.

 

Poorest game I can remember from him in a long time. Use of the ball was woeful, allowed players to run off him, ran into trouble with the ball. At half time, based on performance, he could’ve been subbed.

 

Love him as well and when he’s on it, he absolutely is the driving force behind everything good that we do.

Every single player he plays / has played with talk about his mentality and the standards he sets day to day.

He will be a stalwart for another couple season yet IMO but I don’t think we can afford to play him as a single pivot in a 3 man midfield in Europe or domestic fixtures like yesterday.

We need a young combative CDM that takes the ball under pressure and can use his body to hold players off and get turned. Someone who can put an opposition player 10ft in the air when needed. We basically need another Wanyama - that type of player would elevate this team to another level. With Calmac playing alongside them.

 

There is absolutely zero decline in Callum whatsoever mate.

What we're seeing is a slight dip in form, coupled in with the fact that teams are now starting to double up on him as they know he is the lynchpin deepest in midfield receiving the ball from our defence.

He needs a CDM there helping to shield * off him. That's why Taylor has started inverting more to assist him in CM, which obviously work at times, but when Taylor is out of position from LB, it can create an avenue for the other mobs to hit us down the right.

 

Aye, the huns concentrated on nullifying him and it worked, but he looked sluggish even at getting out to stop crosses coming in and he let his man go a couple of times. Not like him but in his defence he plays nearly every minute of every game.

 

Hope you're right mate..

 

Think it’s largely this time of year when we’re playing three games a week and a lot of the squad have a dip in form. I’m not worried about McGregor declining for at least another two seasons.

 

My captain. What a * player. Level on trophy's with Billy McNeill says it all.

Legend.

 

Thought he carried the midfield first half and was easily motm..

 

Feels like his thread gets bumped more often when he has a poor/average game nowadays.

For me, he's ridiculously consistent and almost always our best midfielder, doesn't feel like he's lost any of his pace yet either. I think he'll be our captain until his late 30's.

Absolutely love him.

 

Aye, it's just taken for granted that his game will be at a good level the vast majority of the time.

 

Very good game today from our Captain.

 

As the final hours of 2024 melt away, Celtic can look back on a fantastic 12 months for the club with a batch of milestones passed and everyone in green and white looking forward to what 2025 will bring.

The nitty gritty starts, of course on Thursday, January 2 with a visit to Ibrox to whet the appetite for the coming year, and Celtic skipper, Callum McGregor, is obviously aiming for he and his team-mates to carry on the with the progress they have made under Brendan Rodgers.

The skipper said of their approach to 2025 that starts with the game against Rangers: “It’s just continuation of how we want to work.

“Since the manager’s come back in it’s been progress week on week, and that’s all we can try to do.

‘Success is always a moving target, and you just keep moving with it, keep trying to get better, keep striving for perfection where you can, and everybody buys into that.’

“And, like I say, every day is an opportunity to get better, so we’ve had a really successful 2024, and I think we can have a really successful 2025, and obviously that starts on the second.”

He added: “It’s just hard work, relentlessness in the mind-set in the way that we want to play and the way that we want to train and behave around the building, so it’s a combination of everything you do daily.

“And when you go away from here, you look after yourself, you come back in and you train the next day, so it’s a real collective effort from everybody at the club and everybody is pushing each other to try to get the maximum we can.

“So, it’s just more of the same. That’s the way we like to work, we’ve got a really good system going here, a really good process and we just stick to it and keep going.”



Of course, a visit to Ibrox means no Celtic fans in attendance, and the skipper is aware of the boost a fast start can give the Celts.

He said: “It’s always important that we want to start the game fast anyway regardless of whether that’s home or away, but in terms of not having any supporters, it’s important that start the game well and try to turn the atmosphere in our favour, which we always try to do anyway.”

This is the first derby since the Celts lifted the League Cup after defeating the Ibrox side on penalties despite not being at their electrifying best on the day.

McGregor said: “The main objective is that we try to play well every week, you’re not going to reach that level all the time, but, especially in cup finals, the most important thing it to come through it and win.

“And then you can always tidy up the little details and always be better when you arrive into the next game, which I think we’ve done well since that game, back to being a wee bit quicker with aggressive runs and everything that makes us good.

“We’re back there as well, so I feel the team is in a good way and a good rhythm. So hopefully we go there and, obviously we want to perform better than we did in the cup final, but we want to go there and impose ourselves on the game, and ultimately try to win the game.”

 

Celtic captain Callum McGregor is on a quest to ensure they always deliver on the big occasion as the Hoops bid to continue their recent domination over their city rivals.

Celtic ended 2024 with three trophies and just two defeats - against Hearts and Borussia Dortmund - and their performances against Rangers were a crucial aspect of that success.

The William Hill Premiership champions beat their city rivals in both of 2024's major domestic finals and have now gone seven derby games unbeaten.

Their only defeat against Rangers in 14 matches came after they had already clinched the 2023 title.

McGregor said: "We want to win every game, especially when the big ones come around, you want to win them as well.

"That's where you're judged. You're judged on these games. You're judged on the success rate of these games


That's where we want to be as a squad when we arrive into the big moments. I keep saying this to the players, it has to become normal for us to arrive in big moments and deliver and perform. Thursday is just another test for us.


Rangers delivered one of their better recent derby performances in last month's Premier Sports Cup final, drawing 3-3 before Celtic won the shootout.

McGregor admitted at Hampden that his side played "nowhere near" their usual level before showing their mentality to get over the line.

The midfielder believes Celtic will arrive at Ibrox in good form on Thursday after scoring eight goals in two matches.

Generally, the way that we want to play is the same every week and just adding layers all the time," he said

So, we'll look at the game and see where we can be better, see where we can maybe exploit that sort of mid-pitch block from Rangers and see the combinations that we need to get through that bit of the pitch and try and cause some problems.

"The main objective is that we try and play well every week. You're not going to reach that level all the time. But especially in cup finals, the most important thing is to come through it and win.

"And then you can always tidy up the little details and always be better when you arrive into the next game, which I think we've done well since that game


We're sort of back to playing a wee bit quicker and aggressive runs and everything that makes us good. We're sort of back there as well.

"So, I feel the team's in a good way and a good rhythm. So, hopefully, we'll go there. And yeah, obviously, we want to perform better than what we did in the cup final.


But we want to go there and impose ourselves on the game and ultimately try and win the game."

Rangers were buoyed by their cup final performance and other results around the Hampden game, but they dropped points against St Mirren and Motherwell last week to fall 14 points adrift of the leaders.

McGregor feels their lead will have no bearing on the encounter.

"No, never," he said. "It's a derby game. You want to win. So, regardless of where the standings are on the table, everybody wants to win. We want to win.

"Rangers will want to win. Both sets of supporters will want to win. So, there's always everything on these games.


It doesn't matter whatever the competition is. We want to win and they'll want to win as well. So, we have to just bring our maximum form and everything else goes out the window when you come to these games.

"It's about performing well on the day and doing everything you can to win."

 

Need him to be on his game today.