Callum McGregor has delivered a worrying confession from the Celtic dressing room, admitting that there is an atmosphere about the place.
Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Kilmarnock made it 10 points dropped by the hoops since the start of January which is a worrying trend. Over a similar period a year ago just two points were dropped, in a draw at Ibrox in the Glasgow Derby.
This season Celtic have mastered that fixture with two wins out of two but seem capable of dropping points in every other fixture.
One win in four matches against Kilmarnock sums up the decline that has alarmed and angered fans with McGregor well aware of the concerns.
A year ago he had Jota, Liel Abada and Aaron Mooy as team-mates, currently only Matt O’Riley and Kyogo Furuhashi remain from the attacking force that was blowing away teams like Kilmarnock a year ago.
By mid-afternoon today Celtic could be in second place in the SPFL Premiership table with McGregor admitting that the title is slipping away, the club captain told The Sun:
That’s the only difference between the two teams — momentum. One side are full of confidence and cheering every tackle and every throw in, while the other side are in a bad moment where the confidence is low and there’s an atmosphere around the place.
That’s up to us as players to fix that. I guarantee you, if you do fix it, then the whole thing changes.
I’ve been there many times. One result can change everything and alter the mentality. We have 12 games to turn that. I’ve got no doubt that if we do turn it, we can still go on and have a successful season.
Mentality is so key when you play for big clubs. You need to be mentally strong and be together. You need to do the basics of the game together. If you do that you give yourself a chance.
If you don’t do that, it becomes individuals running about trying to do their own thing.
McGregor’s own form has been impacted by the decline around him, seeing him booting the ball high into the air on the halfway line was just one of many concerning signs from Saturday’s draw.
If thats the case of being wrong why has it been left to fester as long as this without someone taking people to task and booting a lot of arses from top to bottom of the club instead of the ego’s seeing who comes out on top,,if that’s what the combatints are waiting on the club will go down the plug hole like the not so distant past,,
Am I the only one to notice that our lack of basic skills…??…As a former winger I can tell you now…we don’t have any wingers worth talking about. When I had the ball you had a job getting it off me…Our wingers can’t get rid of it fast enough…Straight back up the line…Palma excluded.. And our final ball in the final third is appalling…Be it a pass..a cross or a cut-back…it’s utter shit…And finally…Matt O’Riley…What a waste of a jersey he’s been…Oh and he couldnae tackle a fish supper…Yesterday was shocking in so many ways…Over to you BR….What are you getting paid for ??…
Martin O’Neil, in the devastating situation of family illness, said on his convenient to all parties exit that “Celtic fans need to get used to living in the slow lane” He had seen the initial dramatic cost cutting, obsession with Capital Preservation and severe down sizing the former Financial Controller under Terry Cassidy had immediately instigated and his stated lack of ambition of the Old Firm “One point ahead “requirement. A Sales Pitch for controlling interest but minority share purchase to an Irish Investor keen to add to his social kudos as per his mates McManus and Magnier facilitated PL riches beyond his ability and DD the only Billionaire in the world to make money from a football club. That Celtic fans have been taken for a ride and bankrolled these money hungry charlatans is depressing but the owner can and does do what he likes and unfortunately the Celtic fans believed the plastic?????
Ange saw the writing on the wall. Rodgers has been sold a pup and knows it. He’ll walk by Easter. PL will appoint JK who he has always wanted. You can’t have too many Yes Men when you’re a troughing balance sheet obsessed Dictator. Celtic fans will suck it up, pay their money and settle for the next great green and white hope whilst the Troughers will gladly keep Troughing until DD sells and another owner steps in.
It’s only going to get worse till at least May…..
there is an atmosphere due to sideways passing and a rotten board who have no intention of improving the first team
This is amuch bigger crisis than low confidence. Their is now a distinct lack of quality, of course Calum is not going to say that, so he sights confidence and an atmosphere. Look at that team yesterday, three quarters is now reserves and projects, that’s going to seriously impact results when carrying that percentage of players who aren’t close to being good enough.
We haven’t had one player make a significant impact in.2 years, all our better players have been here longer. Yet the hard of thinking are blaming the manager. Pep Guardiola couldn’t do anything with that dross, changing our manager doesn’t make our crap players better. Who trusts this board to appoint someone better? Careful what you wish for because we could get someone much worse and a yes man, now we’ve got crap players and manager.
are you saying that kilmarnock has a better squad of players than celtic ? i don’t believe they have , but mcinnes got a better response from those players than rodgers has from his since before christmas , he’s lost the dressing room , he’s toast and bring lawells spies J K and G S with him this time ,
That’s not how football works its not played on paper. The Seville team won at Anfield then lost to Inverness. Its happened to every Celtic manager even the lions. The point your missing is that when every player is replaced by a weaker player then the chances of dropped points increases dramatically. Which manager consistently gets results with Ralston, Scales, Welsh, Bernabei,Yang, etc, etc, etc. Do you not understand that the dilution in quality then effects the better players, the confidence etc. Your looking at the symptoms when the only way to properly fix an issue is to go to the cause not the symptom that is manifesting through the cause. Otherwise we’re going round in circles and back changing manager very often. Would you put crap food and drink in your body then complain that your body isn’t functioning properly? This is not hard to recognise the biggest impact. By all means change the manager but you will never fix the issue properly until you change the strategy, recruitment and way of thinking. The only 2 successful periods we’ve had is when we’ve changed the way we operate. That’s no coincidence.
Sid lets just say our squad and killies are like for like talent wise ,cost wages etc ,so how come McInnes has managed to get the better of us 3 times,has he sussed out how Brendan sets up his team,1st half we controlled the game ,2nd half Killie sensed a weakness in our laborious side to side back passing non penetrative football,so they started having a go at us ,which we obviously couldn’t cope with so where was Brendan’s plan B for coping g with killies change of tactics.Its obviously not just the manager our board have not backed him at all but remember it’s the same board that pissed him off first time round,why did he come back for more ,£3 million pounds spring to mind but he should be doing better than managers on a 20th of his wages.i would also remind you of the hammerings we take in Europe our first excuse is they outspend us 20 to 1 ,so what’s the difference between us and the rest of spfl,apart from sevco who we beat ,but doesn’t help when we drop points against everyone else.
Everything you say is true, it’s what happens when everything starts to unravel. We seen it with Lennon too, with Ronny, with Mowbray. Now everyone of those also had better players than the vast majority but when confidence is low added to the players not being good enough then points are dropped regularly until change. However, get in another manager and these players are still not good enough to win consistently. You’ll then be back at the same problem very quickly.
Oh…and if our new Ladie’s coach has them playing out from the back again today..they’ll get roasted…Sevco played a really high line against us last time …and the final score flattered us…They played us aff the park….Just sayin’.
Recruitment has been atrocious – signing almost a full teams worth of development players when there is no reserve league or similar to actually DEVELOP them in (?!) and worst of all is not even signing players for the positions that glaringly needed filled, even if it was with a project player… still, Brendan took the dairy for it… .
And whilst our injury list has been terrible, especially in defence, it’s our inability to make the right pass/choice at the other end… “it becomes individuals running about trying to do their own thing…” that is Palma in essence. All about himself. We know that we have weakened since last season but an ‘elite manager’ should still be able to get more out of the squad. Clear to me that he has lost a lot of Ange’s players.
Mcgregor puts more celtic players in trouble with his 2yard passes when they have men on them, to me never a captain he plays maybe 2-3 passes forward in a game, as for scales every pass is a shot or he plays the ball behind the man who has to check back to get it. Every ball played over his head he hasn’t a clue where it is and watch him at corners he watches the man and doesn’t know where the ball is again, garbage, no way is nawrocki worse than him. HH
Agree 100%. Why do other people have such difficulty seeing the reality of mcgregor’s limitations. Even the article says that mcgregors dreadful display yesterday was down to the quality around him. He offloads the ball and puts teammates under pressure instead of taking responsibility and disappears when the going gets tough.
The less-than-confident attitude of supporters is down to performances and results which have been, on occasion, less than inspiring. The manager is responsible for how the team plays and the players responsible for carrying that out. The Board (purchases & sales) can be identified as a focal point when it comes to European progress but the current squad is stronger than any other in Scotland and clearly ought to be doing better with that advantage.
There is a crisis on the football side, for which BR is responsible.
There is a crisis on the operational side,
[including e.g. transfer strategy and imo, pathetic PR non-communication],
for which Nicholson is responsible.
And – arguably – the common blocker to resolve these crises could be PL himself?
In typical fashion, the mute Board refuses to speak to the p!ssed off punters.
We want to know what the hell is going on.
Our Lord Lucan of a CEO should be reaching out – if only to convey an understanding
of our frustrations and disappointment with the way the club is being run?
In this information vaccuum, the Board appears aloof, arrogant, complacent
– and uncaring?
Don’t we all support the same team?! 🙁
At last someone at Parkhead speaks the truth !
At least he’s showing Capt material leadership amongst it all…
Thank Fcuk someone actually is !
I have a funny feeling, and it’s one i have had for quite a number of years now that the game is rigged.