Soccer Football - Scottish Cup - Semi Final - St Johnstone v Celtic - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - April 20, 2025 Celtic's Callum McGregor celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
So, as is my custom on a Monday, I’ve been listening to all the weekend podcasts. ETims were excellent, as they usually are. When I’ve heard something I completely agree with, I always want to give credit where it’s due.
So, hats off to them for a really good show — and for one of the most insightful observations I’ve heard in a while about where this Celtic team is right now.
Their take was on Callum McGregor.
The idea they put forward was simple but brilliant. It echoes much of what I’ve been writing about McGregor’s best position being further up the pitch. What they spotted was that Hearts were able to nullify our whole game yesterday by dropping one player back to cover McGregor.
That’s all it took. And it’s a tactic that others have picked up on too.
Derek McInnes is no tactical genius, but he’s learned the same lesson: nullify McGregor and you stop Celtic.
That only works, of course, when McGregor is playing in that deeper defensive midfield role.
When he’s pushed up the pitch, he’s a completely different prospect. He becomes a much harder player to contain because he’s moving constantly, not patrolling one fixed zone. Unleash McGregor, take the shackles off, push him further forward. You suddenly create problems that opponents can’t solve. When you mark McGregor in an advanced role, he can pull your marker out of position and open space for others to exploit.
McGregor showed again yesterday that he’s our best attacking midfielder and the one most capable of scoring goals.
His best season under Rodgers didn’t come when he was sitting deep.
Back then, Scott Brown occupied that position — and how many goals did Brown get? Very few. Our goal-scoring midfielders were Stuart Armstrong and Callum McGregor. You could count on McGregor to chip in with ten goals a season and countless assists.
The departure of Scott Brown — and our failure to go out and buy a proper replacement — has haunted us ever since.
It not only deprived us of one of our best leaders, but it also put chains on our most creative player. The fact we’ve had success since is almost a miracle, considering what we’ve done to him.
If Rodgers is looking for an obvious solution, there it is: push McGregor further up. Let him drift left, right, through the middle. He can pull players, drag markers, and open space. Put Arne Engels in that holding role he’s built for and watch the whole team start to click.
I’ve lamented McGregor’s misuse on this blog for longer than I care to remember. However, it’s the first time I’ve heard anyone else articulate it so clearly and simply. That one change would completely alter the dynamic of the side.
It would restore the creativity we’re missing and make it almost impossible to mark McGregor out of the game. Additionally, it would let Engels do what he does best. I genuinely don’t understand why this hasn’t already happened.
Rodgers has to make changes. When Hearts switched their tactics yesterday to mark McGregor out of the game, the entire dynamic shifted. When the Ibrox club realized all they had to do was stick a man on him, stopping him from passing or dictating play, that was game over. We’ve not beaten them since. Yet, still, this manager refuses to make the most obvious change.
Rodgers can be stubborn, and while I don’t want this to become another Rodgers-bashing session — I’ve defended him often enough — you can’t help but feel frustrated watching him handle this situation.
The definition of insanity, as they say, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If he won’t adapt his strategy or his tactics, what outcome does he expect? The pressure will only grow. If he doesn’t change course soon, he’ll walk out of Celtic Park one way or another with his reputation in tatters.
Other clubs might buy the narrative that his hands were tied by the board, that he’s been working in a toxic environment. Those things might count in mitigation when he’s interviewing elsewhere.
But what won’t wash is tactical inflexibility leading to a collapse. That kind of thing is career cancer. It destroys reputations. If Rodgers can’t see a way out, or won’t take the simplest of steps to change, the industry he works in won’t forgive him. It’ll haunt him everywhere he goes.
This club is crying out for that one change — that very simple, very obvious fix that would liberate Callum McGregor and make him again the fulcrum of this team. He was the best player on the park by a mile in the first half yesterday.
Then Hearts adjusted, and suddenly he vanished from the game. Something so straightforward that even a guy on a podcast can see it. But the man earning two million a year can’t? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
A lot of us have been saying the very same thing. It what tells us that BR has either lost his edge or isn’t trying. It’s such a simple, yet obvious solution. However if he was going to do it he would have done so by now. Rangers will do the same thing next week, and probably beat us.
You’d like to think he’d try this v Falkirk and if it worked then unleash Cal-Mac on Sevco on Sunday…
One thing’s for sure – Something has to fuckin change or it’s gonna be a sad and ugly end for Brendan…
And one that could and should have been so utterly unnecessary as well !
Tony12 – Sevco will do the same thing next week and (probably sadly right enough) beat us…
But it certainly won’t be ‘Rangers’ – They’re dead now for over 13 years !
JF — the CMcG stuff by yourself and others is well off the pace.
CMcG is a good attacking wide midfielder.
He has a bit of pace / some mobility / he has a step and he has a shot.
Good timing good movement and can find space.
However he has never been a certainty — a week in week out class act.
When he first came into the team he was one week a standout then 2 or 3 weeks a hangar on. Back in the day we had some excellent performances when he really got involved followed by a real disappointment where all progress was lost as he disappeared into a fog of expectancy.
He has been a slow but steady developer as he tried and succeeded to add more to his overall game but then it all stopped. Giving up on the NT highlighted his big weakness — an ability to put in a shift week after week given a weight of expectancy that was and is too much for him.
Three years ago he had 8 good games over a long season — 4 of them against Govan FC. Now he is rationing his effort every game he plays and he is being asked to perform a defensive role he just cannot deliver on.
We are asking too much of him — he is not a captain or a natural leader but he has put his all into trying to fill the gap. Now he is a shadow of the player he could have been — 10 or 15 minutes of positive / energetic play as in the first half on Thursday surrounded by 80 minutes of hide and seek and directing traffic.
If we had real graft in our MF — quality players like CMcG or Engles would thrive having been given a platform to do their stuff knowing that others would fill the gaps / do the water carrying / shift the pianos not play them.
We never properly replaced Wanyama and we managed to busk it in the SPL based on goal scorers and some class on the wings. We have this no more and our big fails can’t be hidden any more.
It is not CMcG’s fault that he is idolised by happy clappers / Bronskis / spotty youth — just a case that they never saw Paul McStay or Paul Lambert do the job properly.
We need new energy and we need a new playing style.
Rodgers Mk1 was 4 – 2 – 3 – 1.
Rodgers Mk2 is 4 – 3 – 3 that he inherited from AP.
He needs to get his erse into gear and set up the team based on the talent he has and not the talent he wishes he had.
At this rate he is Rod Hull without Emu.
The more he is on his own the more it looks as if Chris Davies was the glue that made the coaching work and the squad perform.
Sorry for the digression but to get the most out of CMcG we need a new formation and much better coaching to generate some belief and energy in the squad.
Someone is playing a blinder at the moment — he has set up Rodgers to fail and Rodgers has played his game to a T and then fallen into the elephant trap head first.
That someone has no other talent but is happy to destroy the club so he can rule over the ashes as predicted by some Chinese bloke 1500 years ago.
If the change we desperately need is ever going to happen it needs to happen this season and that means putting the execs in the spotlight.
Rodgers and a collapsing squad is the symptom and not the disease.
Many have been pulling their hair out for the last couple of years with Rodgers obstinacy over this very point. Engels played his football before Celtic as a defensive midfielder and yet Rodgers has insisted on trying to make him something else (and many times you have championed our elite manager’s efforts here James). It has cost us on the pitch and cost McGregor in terms of his career stats (he should have more goals and assists).
Look at it simply – is McGregor more dangerous playing 15 one-twos with CCV and Liam Scales or one-twos in the final third with our attacking players?
This has been a BIG blind spot from Rodgers over the last 18 months.
Didn’t expect that news tonight. Not sure what to make of that.
Is this true,,,,,https://thecelticstar.com/the-celtic-rumour-mill-goes-into-overdrive/
something about the manager resigning
Its in the Scotsman by somebody called Mark Atkinson
Rodgers gone just leaves Lawell to leave now.
Team is rather far gone to come back from the brink this season.
I don’t like the stand it’s, they won’t make any difference.
On official club website now…
Let’s just pray that he’s not signed an NDA and spills all the beans from his point of view…
Because if not then his goodwill from us has fuckin well gone – gone – gone…
Whatever – Congratulations Lawwell and Lucan ya cancerous two cells that are eating your fuckin way through to the death of Celtic FC !
I’m no lawyer Clach but if he did sign an NDA he would still have a right of reply to the statement from DD unless he agreed to that statement being issued as it is worded as part of the NDA (signing an NDA whilst leaving yourself open to attack would be naive in the extreme). Time will tell when/if Rodgers tells his side of the story.
He’s resigned, so no payout off and surely no NDA?
He’ll have a book out in time for Christmas
Desmond’s statement would appear to provide the depth needed to understand the situation.
Bitter and twisted would just be the start of it.
Not sure if this comes from sniping over the “£26mill wasted spend” or was this always DD’s Machiavellian plan to get back after Rodgers after the winter of 2019.
Part Hapsburg is our Desmond — never forgive and never forget.
Desmond has probably written the longest suicide note in history with that statement — Swiss cheese spec gum bumping with gaps a plenty over all the major issues.
Biggest point to make — why is the Irish Raj as a NED getting involved with the running of the club to this extent where he would appear to be micro managing everything.
I wonder if he will now attend the AGM?
Going to need a bigger car park if he does.
Circularity …
Clique in the dressing room downed tools when Lennon was struggling with his sleep patterns in 2020.
I wonder if a similar clique downed tools when Rodgers was cutting it up rough with the execs?
MON and Maloney — match made in hell / past it and never had it.
They have to win the league — there is no excuse stopping us now.
I wonder how the betting patterns on this season’s SPL have played out over the last 3 months?
Hertz have some serious betting fire power behind them.
We have NEDs who have old school whales as pals and acquaintances.
Betting and football — the ache that won’t go away.
Looks as though the problems stem from their June and subsequent meetings, and this partly explains the poor execution of the recruitment process. It has always been questionable why BR was brought back and why he did not have hard and fast guarantees on control of all football operations. Although, DD’s statement indicates that this was granted.
Hopefully we get to see the players that Rodgers has discarded.
A fair bit of talent has been sitting in the stand recently.
Who have been siting in the stand that have a fair bit of talent?
It cant be easy if you are on the spectrum but please could you stop talking pish.
If you are struggling , just post another crossword
I don’t think it works the second time around a manager coming ‘back’
And now we have Martin joining Lennon and Rodgers in that bracket…
Where’s Dilea these days !
DD statement: “Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan’s full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false. His later public statements about transfers and club operations came entirely out of the blue.”
So there we have it. Rogers signed off on £30 million worth of duds and wants to be entrusted with another large wedge of our funds.
FFS Kevin if u believe that then I have some magic beans to sell you
Those remarks of DD could cause him to be sued by BR. Who knows what really went on. BR looked defeated and out of ideas. I think certain members of the Board have not performed well, but I am unsure about the whole business of the player thing. BR behaved oddly regards Trusty and Engels and to a lesser extent with Mawrocki and Odin Thiago Holm. Who really developed under BR this time around?? Odin Thiago Holm (1.95 metres) back in December(good news surely) and could Mawrocki’s option to buy be refused by Celtic? I’d like to see these two given another real chance.
The most damning thing DD said in my opinion, is that Brendan had been offered a new contract extension, while Brendan denied it? So who is telling the truth? I don’t thing DD would say such a thing without being sure of the absolute facts of the matter, and it then has me wondering about everything I had previously thought about the whole situation? I hope it all comes out in the wash.
Nevertheless, sack the board.