Callum McGregor

Callum McGregor is adamant Celtic will stay calm after their setback at Kilmarnock.

The Parkhead side left Rugby Park frustrated having shipped two points to Alex Dyer’s hosts after a stuttering show.


McGregor and his team-mates were in pole position to secure success having been handed an early lead by a Ryan Christie free-kick but a lack of ruthlessness at both ends of the pitch meant they had to settle for a point.

Defensively, errors were costly as Christopher Jullien’s needless foul on Nicke Kabamba in the penalty box allowed Chris Burke to net an equaliser.

At the other end of the pitch, McGregor and his colleagues were unable to prise open the Kilie backline to get a winner and the result saw Celtic lose their place at the top of the Premiership.


McGregor said sorry to the punters who had watched in frustration at home.


But he also believes that staying cool in times of
disappointment, as Celtic have done many times in the past, is key going forward.

McGregor said: “Yeah, exactly. There’s a lot of football to be played. That doesn’t detract from us being poor. We understand that and we take responsibility for that as a group. We apologise to the fans for dropping the points but the message is to stay calm.

“On another day you nick it and everything is rosy in the garden but it was one of those days and you have to take the criticism and move on.

“If you get too excited one way or the other then it can always change quickly.


McGregor has been around Glasgow and Celtic long enough to know one disappointing result makes for deep analysis from outside of the camp. The performance of Lennon’s team will be forensically examined by the supporters who are desperate for their heroes to clinch the championship flag this term for a 10th successive time and make history.

McGregor and his team-mates will also look at the aspects of the Ayrshire show that must be improved.

Asked if it was important not to overthink things in the wake of the 1-1 draw, he said: “I think so. You can easily get bogged down and start picking too many holes.

“We know where we went wrong, the final pass and the wee bit of quality was missing and we never defended properly but we need to stay positive.

There’s a lot of football to be played. It was frustrating, of course. It’s the second game
in and we’ve dropped points and given ourselves some work to do.


Performance-wise, it wasn’t good enough from us but we get a point, we need to take it and move on.

“We certainly have to learn from it. There were probably spells in the game where we were dominant in terms of possession and pinning them in but probably just that final bit of quality was missing.

“We just never managed to get the goal.

“It’s something we’ll look at as a group and go again. It’s disappointing but we’ve got to pick ourselves up.

“You get days like that where it doesn’t quite go in for you. You’ve then got to keep the back door shut and that gives you half a chance.

“We’re disappointed just now and we know we’ve let ourselves down but we’ll look at it and go again for Wednesday.”




Manager Lennon refused to point the finger at Jullien for his blunder at the conceded penalty kick that Burke sank to deny Celtic the win and McGregor adopted the same tact.

He said: “It’s a team game, everybody takes responsibility for the performances and results, and when they don’t go the way we want them then we look at both ends of the pitch and see where we can do better.

“We’ll sit down and speak about it as a group.”

Such is the relentless nature of the Premiership term, Celtic have an immediate opportunity to rectify their mistake when they travel to face
St Mirren in Paisley on Wednesday night.

McGregor is delighted the troops have the chance to get straight back into the groove against Jim Goodwin’s side as they aim to ensure no more early-season slips in the tense title race.



He said: “We’ll try to get maximum points and that's something that’s good about football. You always get the chance to rectify it pretty quickly.



We take stock and look where we can be better and we have to show a reaction.


There’s obviously been a big break. You can look at pre-season and the fitness work has been excellent but you don’t quite get that match sharpness until you go into the games and find that extra wee bit.

“It’s early but we always put ourselves under pressure to perform well and win every game, so when it doesn’t happen we look at it and try to rectify it for the next game.

“There’s another game on Wednesday, so we pick ourselves up and go again.”

 

He's far better further up the park as opposed to a partner for Brooney.

We need to be rotating Brown and Soro beside Ntcham of we're carrying on with 2 deep lying midfielders.

Get Calmac up further to unleash his potential.

 

Christie is flashy and arguably the more energetic.

McGregor though, feel like he's got mix of best bits of Rogic and Christie in his game and is utterly wasted as a deep lying midfielder.

Would love to see how the dynamic work in 5 man midfield with Brown and Ntcham being the holders and McGregor supporting the two strikers.

 

I personally don’t think Brown and Ntcham in the same team works. It has to be one or the other for me.

McGregor has had some great games playing deep. He is far quicker on the ball than Brown at getting passes away and is always looking forward. He is great further forward as well though but I think he is a great orchestrator at starting our attacks.

 

CM: The good thing for us we’ve got a home tie, we’ve prepared really well today and everyone’s in good spirits

CM: "There’s good confidence going into the game and we have to perform on the night and, if we do, then we’ve got a great chance of going through."


CM on the #CelticFC squad: "The squad gets stronger every year, it seems to be, with touching it up with quality and getting better. So that tells you about the character of the boys that are here and the standards that we set every day.



CM: "Every year when players come in, whether they’re midfielders or defenders or attackers, it always helps the depth of the squad and, ultimately, that will drive the standard of the players up."



CM: "That’s the standard here at Celtic – they’re always looking to get better and you have to get better as well.

 

got to say i think he misses getting involved in and around the opposing box

hes playing too deep why are we playing with 2 holding midfielders domestically anyway

the setup of the team aint right

our center backs are weak defensively which means we have to have a formation with 2 defensive midfielders

why are we drifting and not being pro active about fixing it

 

Yes, tend to agree, just not doing enough attacking wise.

 

hope so like to see him in the final third a bit more so he can set up goals or score them and christie although i love him isnt running around like a heidless chicken for 90minutes trying to do it all himself

 

Everyone think he was good tonight?

 

* like the rest of them

 

I have said he has been poor in pre season and competitive games.
Would still have him in the side but in Browns role.

 

Hes been so far this season

 

He is a great player but he has so many games where he doesnt make near enough of an impact.

 

McGregor is technically sound but he has A LOT of games where he seems to go missing or just have no impact on the game whatsoever.

When he's in good form he's good, but he's a player who has been overrated drastically for me in the last couple of years. People say he's "Mr Consistent" when he's anything but. I cringe when I read he's the best player in Scotland or can play anywhere he wants to.

I actually like him but our fans need a reality check sometimes. I do not think Brown is a good partner for him in the middle, they are always too close to each other. Defensively he's soooo weak but that's not his game.

I don't want to overly criticise but he gets such an easy ride for being a ghost in a lot of these games.

 

The problem is that Lennon has him playing so far back, like a second 6. With Brown there beside him he has limited options to pass the ball forwards, breaking the lines, so it goes side to side.

I'd have him playing in the holding role, with two other midfielders (Christie, Ntcham) higher up the pitch. Either that or play him in the 10 where he can create more

 

My. Thoughts exactly, the time under Rodgers he came to the fore but his best work was getting into great spaces and into the box. The only time he's excelled.in that deep role was when Brown was out the team and you had Christie and Rogic playing further up the park.

As said him and Brown play far too deep and let's be honest it ain't like they're breaking up play now.

 

He was * tonight, has been since season started tbh.