Callum McGregor

100% 60-70 games a season for a decade catches up with anyone.

He’s not been as peerless as he can be this season but he has a minimum standard he doesn’t drop below and he clearly is the leader which is why he doesn’t tend to get a rest.

Also, I’ve said it for years. Best finisher in the squad, if he plays as an 8 for his whole time here you see a consistent 19/20 season numbers wise.

9 goals from your midfield anchor is crazy.

 

The consistency talk about him genuinely baffles me, weirdly the most consistent players in midfield are ones I’ve seen this crop up the most for as long as I can remember a Celtic team. Lambert got it, Lennon did, Broony did, Ledley did and now Calmac. And it’s players if I had to answer the most consistent players I’ve seen, them, Henrik, Sutton, Mjallby and CCV are the absolute stand outs for consistency.

i don’t get it. Can someone try and explain his inconsistency to me? Can’t even see how anyone can come to that opinion

 

Weirdly anytime I can remember him getting a rest, he’s not been as fresh next game. Him being retired from Scotland he has more rest than he ever has before. Now we’ee out of Europe as well, there’s going to be a lot more weeks with two games rather than a midweek. He’ll be fine

 

Is Callum McGregor okay?

Yeah.

He just felt a little bit of tiredness in his calf. So I didn't want to take any risk with him. And Luke coming in was fantastic. Arne Engels just dropped back in.

 

Thought we looked better when McCowan replaced him, definitely needs more time off between games.

 

Whether you think hes slowing down or aging at all, we should've been doing this a lot more previously..

He's played so many games and far too many minutes after games have been long won..

 

We just looked way more dynamic when he went off

 

We need to utilise the option of swapping him and Engels positionally on the pitch seamlessly, they bring different attributes in both positions, it’s more unpredictable options added to our game, keeps the other midfield off kilter needing to think about where to be with the majority of teams we play dedicate a guy to just follow and try and stop Calmac orchestrating our play.


They’ll follow him shifted forward for a bit until they click, leaves Engels in space, McGregor attacking a lopsided midfield trying to defend and most of all, he’s the best goal threat we have in midfield.

 

He's been brilliant for us again this season. Things got better in this game when the changes were made but that's why we have a squad/bench with players who can make a difference, they can be utilised as required.

 

Absolutely love watching Calmac playing for Celtic, one of my all time favourite players, alongside Paul McStay.

With that in mind, I really want to continue enjoying watching him play for the next 2/3 years, which looks impossible under this current workload.

There’s an interesting article this week in The Guardian, about Raheem Stirling and how many players struggle after 500 appearances, which immediately draws us back to CM.

Let’s hope the club do the right thing by our captain, and we get to enjoy him producing his best for Celtic for plenty more games and trophies in the future

 

He'll be glad of a bit of rest now. The amount of minutes he plays a season must be up there with the highest in world football.

Hopefully once the leagues wrapped up we can get Engels in there for a few games and let him rest or give him some minutes here and there nearer the end of games when the tempo drops a bit.

 

Got a link?

Edit: found it https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ng-decline-after-hitting-the-fateful-500-mark