Callum McGregor

He was atrocious last year but he's been one of our best players this season, despite a * game today.

 

I think hes been average this year, couldnt tell you a game hes ran or took by the scruff.

He is a good player, but never a captain for me.

 

so many misplaced passes, very disappointing today.

 

Is worst game since last year for us

 

Absolutely ludicrous claim.

 

I know it's maybe an odd thing to say but he saw too much of the ball today and tried to do too much.

Possession is great but can't be everything.

 

He's far more suited to a sitting midfielder role now, and he's got very good at it imo. Being available for a CB to pass to, making an angle for teammates , keeping it simple and helping the team transition from defence to attack . That's his game . He's not a number 10.

 

That certainly wasn’t a Celtic captains performance today.

 

IT is fair to say that the start to the Ange Postecoglou era at Celtic hasn’t always been plain sailing. Which is why it has been vitally important for the Celtic manager to have someone he can trust implicitly to steer his team through some often choppy waters in these early days of the season.

Not even Callum McGregor – accomplished player as he is – would claim to be on the same level as Luka Modric though. Despite scoring at Hampden against Croatia in the European Championships in the summer, McGregor himself has admitted that it was an education being on the opposite side to a previous Ballon D’or winner.





But take it from a teammate of both players, when it comes leadership, McGregor is just as important to Celtic as the Real Madrid superstar is to Croatia.

Josip Juranovic has been hugely impressed by McGregor since arriving at the club in the summer, with the influence that Celtic’s new skipper has on those around him reminding him of the inspirational effect that Modric has on his national team.


Celtic will need all of that knowhow as they head to Budapest for the second game in their Europa League double-header against Ferencvaros, needing to bounce back quickly from the unexpected blip – and the manner of it – against Livingston at the weekend.

Juranovic, who is likely to be deployed at left-back once more in Hungary, says that it will be McGregor who will ensure they drag themselves back up once more. When asked if the Celtic captain was as vital to Postecoglou’s men as Modric is to Croatia in that regard, Juranovic said: “Of course, because Callum has been here for maybe 20 years or something like that.

“He is a true leader, a true captain, and when he speaks we all listen




He went out of his way to welcome me to the club when I arrived, texting me a message. Every person here is a great footballer, and they are good people.”

According to Juranovic, it is McGregor who sets the tone for the familial atmosphere that has seen Celtic get their season largely back on track of late, despite that wobble against Livingston at the weekend, where Juranovic being stripped of penalty duties proved costly as Giorgos Giakoumakis missed from the spot in injury time.





He believes that bond between the players - and the fact that McGregor is back in the team, with Celtic struggling while their captain was out with a hamstring injury earlier in the season – will mean that they can come through the tough times together.

“For me, it’s better to be a good person and then to be a football player, because we are at a game only for 90 minutes or 120 minutes, but after that you must be a good person,” he said.

“Here, we are like a family, and that is the most important thing.

“You can see at Paris Saint Germain for example, they have very good players but they are not like a family, and they don’t win all their games.

“Here, you can see every minute that we are supporting each other, that we have one another’s backs.”

As tempting as it may have been, McGregor hasn’t been picking Juranovic’s brains for insights into how Modric puts on the sort of masterclass he produced against the Scots in the summer though, perhaps being of the same mind as the Tartan Army in trying to forget about what was ultimately a bruising experience.

Not that Juranovic is making it all that easy for his skipper to erase that evening from his mind completely.


“I did show him a picture from the game against Scotland where I was protecting the ball and he was behind me trying to get it, but I had it between my legs so he couldn’t get it,” he said.

“He found that quite funny.”

 

Masterclass from him.

* outstanding.

 

* brilliant tonight, what a player

 

thats more like it, his drive got us to the third goal.

 

The boss

 

An absolutely phenomenal player who will go down as a legend for us, I absolutely love him.

 

He absolutely already is for me. Been absolutely key as part of an Invincible Treble and the Quadruple Treble.

 

This is when McGregor is at his best. Needs to be played further forward like tonight to give him the licence to do it.

 

Hes fantastic. Genuinely class footballer. Operates at a high level.

Of course as soon as we drop more points he won't be captain material again