Who is our most important player?

Explain why we struggle every single time CCV is out but do ok when McGregor is out then?

 

Ange made a number of changes for that game.

 

Cal because of his influence on the pitch and off the pitch, when he was out Ange used about 3 or 4 players to fill all his roles.

But CCV is a close second because we just don't have decent cover for him which leaves Starfelt having to do the work of our entire backline on his own and putting more pressure on our midfield (losing Johnston at the same time is compounding things atm)

 

Because Matt O'Riley stepped up and Kobayashi and Iwata didn't.

 

I think people are reading this in a different way.

If we’re talking about love and knowledge of the club, being an academy graduate etc then obviously it’s McGregor.

But if we’re talking purely about the impact of missing them on the pitch, I honestly don’t know how anyone can say with a straight face that we miss McGregor more than CCV or Kyogo, for a start.

McGregor can be replaced more “easily” than our best defender and the guy who scores almost every game he plays.

 

Which would mean CCV is most important. Its not "who is the best" it's who we miss more when they're out.

 

Thus proving the fact that CCV is missed more than McGregor…

 

It doesn't really. It just means we don't have a suitable second/third option in defence.

 

I think the last few games have shown us that we really can't do without CCV

 

Maybe, although I just don't think our defensive issues without CCV have been mainly down to the games being dead rubbers. Kobayashi would have struggled away at Ibrox and Iwata would have had problems with Main regardless, although perhaps that is mitigated somewhat by everybody else being more 'on it' when the league's on the line.

Regardless, I don't think there's any question that we look a much more solid defensive unit when CCV plays, which has been highlighted in other games as well.

 

Which literally means we miss CCV more than McGregor atm.

If we had a suitable replacement for CCV then that might not be the case.

 

That's a squad issue though, it doesn't make Carter-Vickers the more important player for us.

 

But isn’t that the whole point?

CCV is more important because when he’s out our defence falls to pieces.

When McGregor is out, okay we drop in quality a bit but O’Riley did well there and Iwata could fill in capably.

That’s what I’m reading the question as anyway.

 

It's obviously between McGregor and CCV. Hard to choose between them - what is obvious is we struggle big time when either one is missing.

I went for CCV.

 

Missed more due to lack of depth is not the same thing as most important which was the question asked.

 

It means we ship more goals which is a problem primarily if we don't score goals ar the other end. We can conceed goals and still win, we can't win if we don't score. McGregor is the key to us scoring goals, it all comes through him, he distributes the ball, he basically tells the other players where to move the ball on to.

 

It doesn't mean that.

 

Cal if he was fully fit we’d have made 3rd in CL group stage a draw at home to Leipzig and a Win against Shaktar would have took us through and we certainly weren’t far off achieving both. CCV there or not didn’t change that we didn’t qualify with him and wouldn’t have without him but if he was injured early enough we could have signed another CB we have tried other DMs but none have been as good as Cal

 

Again, I don't put much weight on the previous two matches.

McGregor is far more important to the way we play imo. It's a cliche but when McGregor doesn't play well (which is very rare) the team struggles. That's before you get into McGregor being the team's leader, quite literally dictating the play on the pitch and setting the standards off it.

This discussion makes me smile though, because it demonstrates how well each player mentioned has played for us. Clearly they're both incredibly important to us and hopefully we can recruit similar quality in the summer.

 

CCV without doubt. The journeyman Main rag rolled our centre backs on Saturday.
In comparison the huns most important player is the DOB in black.