CALLUM McGREGOR admitted the Celtic players deserved a half-time tongue-lashing from a furious Brendan Rodgers as they toiled against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.
The champions were trailing 1-0 on a grey, dull afternoon on December 3 last year and the Hoops gaffer didn’t hold back as he made his feelings known about the team’s insipid performance against the Perth side.
Captain McGregor acknowledged he and his team-mates had to answer the wake-up call and to show they were worthy of wearing the green and white hooped jersey.
It was the club’s onfield leader who rifled in the equaliser shortly after the turnaround and Matt O’Riley and James Forrest added two more in a 3-1 victory on the team’s way to a third successive title triumph.
BEFORE AND AFTER…Brendan Rodgers applauds the Celtic fans before kick-off in Perth and (below) the manager is grim faced as he offers a thumb’s up to the travelling support at full-time.
As Celtic prepare to return to the venue for Saturday’s 5.45pm kick-off, McGregor reflected on happenings last season and said: “It was certainly the angriest I’ve seen him.
“I think that’s the statement that everyone kind of clings onto because he’s normally very, very calm under pressure.
“I think it was just maybe a step too far that day. The pressure of the situation and how the team had been playing up to that point probably played a factor in it, as well.
“But you’re in elite-level sport, so you have to take criticism and take the manager’s view on board. If you’re not doing the things that you should as a team, then you have to be told and I’m sure the players want it that way, too.
“Obviously, different players probably react differently to criticism or those moments of red-button panic stations.
“When you see someone like the manager losing his cool and demanding more, then it makes you want to turn the thing around and get a positive result, which we obviously did on that day.”
McGregor, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “I think the response 12 months on is the group are in a really good place and probably better for that action at half-time.
THE EQUALISER…Callum McGregor shows his joy after making it 1-1 with St Johnstone.
“It’s another lesson that, if you don’t do your work properly and you don’t do all the small details and earn the right to win, any game can be difficult.
“The players understand that and full focus this week is about this game and then we want to try and get a positive result, positive performance and, obviously, then take it into the midweek game.
“Our job is trying to prepare the team Monday to Friday, so that we don’t get to that emergency point of someone needs to do something special to bring us out of a hole.
“Of course. the motivation element for, especially me and the senior players, is always important because at the end of the day you’re human beings, so every now and again you need a jag to get you going.
“But as much as we can eliminate that part of it, then I think at that point you’re doing a good job rather than having to keep intervening all the time and keep trying to find solutions to problems that arise.
“In my experience, it’s trying to encounter fewer problems. Then you’re doing a good job.”
After the battle for Premiership points in Perth, the Hoops will switch their focus to Europe’s most glamorous competition and a meeting with Borussia Dortmund in their 81,000-capacity stadium with the famous Yellow Wall waiting to to attempt to intimidate visitors.
And then it’s back to league business and Saturday’s High Noon encounter against Ross County in Dingwall.
THE ENDGAME…Brendan Rodgers is in reflective mood as Luis Palma and Callum McGregor have a discussion as they come off the McDiarmid Park pitch.
McGregor added: “Of course, that’s the challenge, especially with young players. The gravitas of the Champions League and what it brings for the players and the club. Naturally, people will get excited by that.
“But you don’t get to the Champions League if you don’t win the league. That is the bread and butter. That’s the message that we speak about every day, trying to set that level every day, so that when the games come it just becomes an automatic thing.
“To play at this club, you need big mentality. It’s not just skill or determination or desire.
“You have to have the mentality to go again every three days in a massive game where whoever you play wants to beat you and then it becomes their cup final.
“That’s the mark of a good Celtic player, being able to perform under pressure, especially in this next run of games where you’re playing every three days.
“You’ve got to find a way to win games that won’t always be pretty. We set out to be a team that wants to play football and dominate the game, but going into this period, there will be leggy bodies at the end of it and you just have to find a way to win.”
