Callum McGregor

Even if we weren't facing a massive rebuild this summer I'd still want us to keep McGregor, for a variety of reasons. The main one being his ability.

 

That is proof that he should only really be considered as an attacker, not a holding/defensive midfielder.

 

And the year before he was that good in the holding role people were saying it just goes to show he should be there, year before it was when he moved to the left wing.

Only thing it goes to show is he hasn’t been underperforming for years.

 

One of many reasons he struggled this year was being paired next to a declined Brown. Doing the work of two men is going to make any midfielder look worse than what they are. That's before you even start on the non-existent game plan we appeared to operate with for much of the season.

 

I don’t even think it was that. Both him and Brown seemed to have no defined role, Brown majorly improved when he had one anchoring the diamond but McGregor and Christie never really had one in that formation either. Didn’t know if they were wingers, central midfielders, if they were to go forward or hang back. There was no structure there for them at all.

McGregor ended up trying to do everything and ended up doing not much as a result.

 

I'm convinced that had a huge impact on McGregor's play, especially early on in the season. I remember a game at McDiarmid Park where Brown was dropped and suddenly we looked a lot more solid through the middle. The defence was awful but Brown's lack of mobility saw a lot of players cruising past him this season. Not having an adequate partner in the centre of midfield, imo, seemed to really sap McGregor's confidence and left him overworked a lot of the time. I do agree that lack of clear instruction didn't help matters.

 

Might have been a mix of both mate. He did look like he had more freedom going forward next to Soro.

 

What if he was one of the ones who chucked it in, I mean he was absolutely * last season.

 

Just wondering if we are dealing with Rodgers and Leicester and had dealing before could we be asking for a higher fee than usual for McGregor and lower fee for edouard to balance out having to pay a supposed rumoured sell on with edouard ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Well I certainly didn't say that. Rodgers did, and most seemed to believe him.

Anyway, previous seasons aside, he has been atrocious all year. If you want a valid reason why his form "dipped" it's because he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the effort he was putting in week in week out was enough to guarantee him a starting spot. Even some of the best players in the world would lack motivation to improve their game if they knew that.

Calmac should have been dropped for a month and that might have forced him to reevaluate his work ethic on the park and up his game.

 

Only player that seems to get a by for being * this season. The amount of excuses I've heard from fans about McGregor is laughable. Everybody else is either *, didn't give a * but not poor McGregor

 

I’m his biggest fan on here but I’m honestly worried about his form man.

 

Hasn’t he played over 200 games in 3 years now? That’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of strain to put on him, of course his form is going to suffer. We saw how good he could be under Rodgers, let’s see if a new manager can get him back on track.

 

Think his best season was Neil Lennon’s first one back, year before this one. He was * unreal

 

That's exactly it. Excuses. It's always someone else's fault for his lack of form.

It's strange, there is always at least one player that gets a free pass when it comes to criticism. I remember Ledley was immune to getting called out after a bad game as well. I'm not saying I disliked Ledley, but it felt like it was taboo to say a bad word against him. Just like McGregor.

A bit of constructive criticism might do him good, rather than just perpetuating the myth that he is consistently brilliant every game.

 

@Born green funny thing is, I’ve always said there’s 3 players I’ve always thought if you didn’t like them in a Celtic Jersey then you know * all about football, you just named two, the third one was Lambert.

 

Ay but he said he liked Ledley. He is saying when they have a bad game its always somebody elses fault. You can't call them out in fans eyes as they start making excuses for them.

I was a fan of both Ledley & Lambert but not McGregors biggest fan. Think he keeps the game ticking over & had his best spell under Rodgers. I just don't think McGregor is anything special & * forbid he is never a captain.

McGreogor has had a disgraceful season but doesn't get half the abuse Christie gets even tbough both got played out of position.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

I wasn’t saying that about @Born green I just found it interesting he compared them.

 

He's oddly one of the few I'm not really that worried about going forward tbh, almost all of the squad were dragged down a level and playing well within themselves most of the season, but we've seen his quality consistently for years before now, this year was bad but you don't just lose that ability completely. Once we put this season well behind us, new manager in, freshen up training and start playing with better tactics and clearly defined roles on the park, I think we'll see more of the player we know he can be.

 

Funnily enough, I almost mentioned Lambert as well! Haha

You just solved the mystery. It is comments like that that make people afraid of calling them out.

Lambert was easily my favourite player (after Larsson) in that era. I loved the work off the ball that Ledley did to cover, especially for Izzy.

Calmac, in my opinion, is not in the same bracket as those 2. He has good qualities, but, at least this season, has lacked in so many other areas. He really hasn't performed well at all this year, and there is nothing wrong with pointing that out, nor is there anything wrong with highlighting his deficiencies as a holding midfielder.