Callum McGregor

I've long held the view that he ideally shouldn't be playing at DM. I don't think it's his best position and I think he offers more going forward. Now that we've signed Mooy and Abildgard, I'd like to see one of them at CDM and Calmac rotated in with Hatate/O'Riley.

 

Great that he can adapt his game to plat as a deep playmaker but it’s just a fact that he is better further forward, the same way Kyogo is better through the centre than out wide. I’d love to see the Danish lad at DM with McGregor in front.

 

We have two Danish midfielders now, all getting a bit confusing.

 

I should really learn the new lad’s name.

 

That’s our last two Champions League games that I’ve thought our Captain has been less than inspiring, I don’t know if he’s carrying an injury or the mammoth task of being our Captain on the park with so many new players to acclimatise, has affected his game but it’s noticeable his losing the ball in dangerous positions AND I believe if he wasn’t our Captain he’d have lost his starting spot.

 

He was one of the better players last night! Overshadowed by Hatate playing futher up the park, but he was being man marked the whole game. Given a lot of room for other players. Most of the passing I seen was on point. A lot of people MOTM and I couldnt argue with that either, had Taylor/Hatate myself

 

Was arguably our best player against Real and made one costly mistake last night but otherwise was a steady presence and coped well with being marked.

 

Honestly im a bit bewildered that he is being so criticized after the game last night. I think hes a victim of his own success because hes so consistently brilliant now when he has an 8/10 game people notice his mistakes more even though they are minimal.

He was arguably MOTM last night but Hatate or maybe Taylor were good shouts as well

 

I think it's the case that he's not a natural DM, so when we makes a rare mistake, it's often a howler that leads to an attack on our goal. Last night's was an example of that, poor decision-making trying to intercept the pass coming in rather than preventing the pass going out to the wing or wherever. By way of comparison, I doubt you'd catch Mooy risking that, even though Calmac's undoubtedly the better overall player.

 

Made the most interceptions again, won 96% of his duels.

And he controlled that game. He did dive in for their goal, but thinking he can’t do that position because of that is nonsense, because I’ve seen guys like Lambert and Lennon do that * as well.

He made a mistake, but that mistake doesn’t mean he’s not capable of that job. Because he’s been head and shoulders above anybody else as our most influential player the two CL games.

 

In attacking teams, and high pressing, any mistake in his position is a major one.

 

If we have one player who could play for a top team and not look out of place, I'd say it's McGregor. If Klopp can deploy Henderson and Milner effectively in a Premier League and Champion's League winning side, I don't doubt that Cal could also play for a top 6 side too.

Fantastic player and irreplaceable here. Thankfully he's not going anywhere, probably ever.

 

Where would he rank in a list of our best ever midfielders?

 

Always hard to say isn’t it? He’s up there with McStay for me, Stan Petrov etc.

But when you get to the likes of Murdoch? How can you judge, Murdoch was one of the best midfielders in the world in his day, but football’s a different game now than it was when the Lions were kicking about.

 

Pretty much why I’m asking mate.

 

…. Well I feel silly now

 

But - given that it’s the sort of mistake he wouldn’t make if playing further up - it does mean that DM isn’t his best position. Just because he can do the job doesn’t mean that he should, because DMs find themselves having to make those sort of marginal defensive decisions a lot more than CMs.

He also just affects the game more directly further up. Doesn’t mean he won’t affect it at DM, but he’s definitely not the same player in Europe there as he can be at CM. Will still be one of our top performers, but we won’t see his absolute best at that level if he’s playing DM.

 

My point is I’ve seen plenty of DM’s make mistakes like that.