Cal Mac & Kasper

I don’t think it’ll be this season for Cal’s slow down, though I’ve barely seen any of preseason. When he does decline though, the manager better have the balls to drop him. Brown’s last year/year and a half here he held us back something shocking when he was clearly the weak link of the team.

 

Kasper made some really good saves in the Newcastle game. One would hope McGregor's insane fitness indicates he'll stay solid for a few more years. It's not like Brown either where we expected him to go box to box and make things happen at both ends of the pitch. I think you can play at DM in a very attacking team and be good even after speed starts to decline.

 

I'd hope that the two of them (and any others) would be managed through the later years of their careers.

Not sure it's time though to drop them on a large scale, but certainly need to manage them and their replacements.

Sinisalo has shown he's capable, specially domestically, so if we are seeing the sudden drop in Kasper (personally not sure we are yet), then he should be introduced back in to the team a lot more so that we don't go through weeks or months of Kasper blundering (not that I think we are at that stage).

As for McGregor, it's like with Brown - we need to learn to play without him and at times we may actually play better without him. Plenty of midfielders to rotate in and try different options.

On the point about CalMac grabbing on to players as they pass him, that's also something I see far to often from Scales - just reminded me there and is reason again to look for better. Giving away silly fouls isn't good for a defenders nor from our captain if that's the way he starts to go.

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I think there's sign there, for sure. To be expected.

With GK, there's a coherent plan going forward in Sinisalo. CMF is another issue altogether. I would have hoped we'd have learned our lesson wi Brooney. But it appears we're just carrying on wi Cal regardless, where there should be proper management of his game time. That's not including how 1 dimensional we're in there already.

Def should be accelerating plans to look for his replacement now.

 

McGregor showed clear signs of physical decline last year.

Seeing him trying to get back in during transitions was quite hard to watch at times in Europe.

Our tactical set up doesn’t help him, and if our recruitment policy was more effective we’d be able to protect him more.

But here we are.

 

I think McGregor's at the stage where he needs to adapt his game and we need to adapt his role and think about who he can and can't play alongside; but I think he's still good enough to be in our first-choice midfield.

Schmeichel, I suspect it might be worse than that, but we'll see.

 

If we signed a top drawer #6 and released Calmac to play where he should be at#8 - he'd get a new lease of life.
At the moment you see the size of the burden he carries for both himself and the rest of the team.
It's crushing him - cup final tears a case in point.

 

Mcgregor has never been the quickest I just think it's more the fact he's not a holding mid.

That first Ajax goal is something we see all the time Mcgregor carried it forward and misplaced a pass one forward pass from Ajax and we're all over the place at the back

Every single CM we have would benefit from having a proper sitting mid beside them

 

Already looked the same in the Ajax game. Was great against Newcastle then next game he looked tired. Really need to stop playing him every minute of every game. So many times last season he could have been subbed off after an hour but stayed on the full match.

 

One thing that bothers me about Rodgers as a manager is that he really has no problem with running his favourites into the ground, we could sign a really solid DM tomorrow and he'd still start McGregor in the 6 role every game.

I really worry about him properly managing Tierney's gametime to keep him fit.

 

Both McGregor and Schemeichel are major worries for this season. As it stands, they are now the two weak links in the Celtic team imo.My thoughts on Schemeichel are well documented on this forum, and watching another five goals whistle by him against Ajax, as he was helpless, did nothing to soothe my concerns.

McGregor has lost a yard, and is like a fish out of water at No.6, because he can't tackle or disrupt the opposition. I'm dreading the Champions League qualifier and the Ibrox game, if both of them keep their places in the team, which looks likely, unless Brendan has a come to * moment.

 

Sinisalo needs to be given a chance like he is tonight.

Kasper is 39 and you could say his * up in the CF cost us as much as anything else that day.

He was overall great for us last season but I don’t think he should be a guaranteed starter.

I like the look of Sinisalo, he’s defo younger and more athletic.

Re CalMac, I worry we are going to run him into the ground like we did with Brown. Brown was unbelievable for us but my * was he a hard watch the last season. Too safe in possession and too easy to play around.

 

Both players getting to the stage for their positions where performances can fall off a cliff very quickly.

CalMac shouldn't be playing every game, his game time needs to be managed.

 

It's a worry remember us not heeding the signs when brown got older and couldn't run and that went on for years neglecting the team until he was done and our team slowed down to walking pace football

 

Would like us to go back to Rodgers first spell approach of playing 4-2-3-1 at some point.

Engels and McGregor in the holding two could be interesting and provides protection. I think it would work well for both.

Engels
McGregor

Jota
Nygren(if he really is the one)
Maeda/McCabe

A quality striker to replace Kyogo