CALLUM McGREGOR admits Celtic will have to look again at the midfield area that saw them dominate so many rivals in 2024.
However, alarm bells were ringing at Ibrox during the week when there was a severe malfunction in the Hoops’ engine room when the captain, Paulo Bernardo and Reo Hatate toiled against a Rangers onslaught.
There was little cohesion, control or composure among the champions’ trio and it didn’t change even after Brendan Rodgers had sent on Luke McCowan and Arne Engels as second-half replacements for the struggling Portuguese and Japanese playmakers.
The Hoops lost their way and, according to McGregor, have no excuses for a dreadful outing to kick off 2025.
DESPAIR…Callum McGregor looks distraught as Celtic toil at Ibrox.
A 3-0 thumping in Govan was not in the script as the visitors turned up for an encounter that could have pushed them SEVENTEEN points ahead at the Premiership pinnacle.
Instead, they will have to be content with an 11-point advantage as they prepare to welcome St Mirren to Parkhead on Sunday as they prepare to get very swiftly back on track.
Looking back at a mystifyingly passive performance throughout the line-up, McGregor agreed there might be a need for a tactical shift in the middle of the park and said: “Yeah, they were set up with the low block and we were finding it hard to get through.
“We need to look at that and we need to tweak it a little bit to give us a bit more comfort in the game and allow us to get the territory that will make us comfortable.
“So, there’s a couple of warning signs there and a lot of the big moments in the game have come from that, the sort of transition moment where they’ve managed to block a pass and then play forward from there.
“There are signs there that we have to fix it and try and fix it as quickly as we can.”
MISSED OPPORTUNITY…Kyogo Furuhashi fails to react to a Callum McGregor cross in only two minutes as Ibrox duo Ridvan Yilmaz and Liam Kelly escape punishment.
McGregor, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “You don’t want to lose any game, you feel it straight away. You feel the tension after the game, everybody’s feeling it.
“So, yeah, there’s no point in trying to make excuses. We weren’t at the level, we never performed, and if you don’t do that, you don’t deserve to win.
“So, you have to find the solution to that quickly.”
The champions’ 31-year-old onfield leader added: “It’s important that we reflect on the game and then we get it out of system against St Mirren.
“There’s a lot of football to be played in January and we just need to reset and go again.”
