McGregor criticises Celtic’s ‘team of individuals’ after Rangers defeat
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Callum McGregor was part of a Celtic midfield that was overrun at Ibrox
- Published3 minutes ago
“You saw a team and you saw a team of individuals.”
Captain Callum McGregor was scathing in his assessment of Celtic’s display in Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Rangers.
Having gone into the League Cup quarter-final at Ibrox with a perfect domestic record, Celtic were swept aside by their Glasgow rivals.
“Rangers were a team and we looked like a team of individuals who wanted to do our own thing, play when we got the ball and not necessarily run when we don’t have the ball,” said the midfielder.
“That’s the one thing you can’t do when you come here, is not run. You can’t defend with six players, it’s impossible.”
It is the second sobering defeat for Martin O’Neill’s side this season after a 4-0 aggregate lead was somehow squandered to LASK in Champions League qualifying.
Celtic host Rangers in the Scottish Premiership next weekend, in what should be McGregor’s 50th derby, after they begin their Europa League campaign at home to Ferencvaros on Thursday (20:00 BST).
“We’re trying to get the message to everyone that we have to be a team and we need to find a way to do that quickly because we lost a big game to LASK and lost another one today,” added McGregor.
“We’ve put ourselves under pressure and we need to respond on Thursday and again on Sunday.
“If we want to be a good Celtic team, we need to win the big games. We’ve been bitty so far and we need to fix it.”
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Describing Celtic as “poor in pretty much every area” at Ibrox, McGregor admitted his side were second best from the moment Dan Neil scored on 23 minutes.
The opening goal came after two glaring errors from visiting goalkeeper Sam Johnstone went unpunished.
“When we went behind we never looked like recovering to be honest,” said McGregor.
“We had a couple of moments early on and if we take them it’s a different game.”
Celtic were guilty of repeatedly losing possession in their own half of the pitch, while their forwards rarely threatened.
“If we you want to impose yourself on the game, you need to be good on the ball and we never quite did that,” added McGregor.
“It wasn’t massive pressure either. It was careless and slack, we kept turning the ball over for counter-attacks, which they were good at to be fair.”
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- Published18 June 2023
