Callum McGregor reflected on Celtic’s 3-2 League Cup win over Hearts and reckoned that the turbo charged style of play is exciting for both the players and the support and is going to take the club back to the trophy laden days after a season to forget. Looking back on the game against Hearts the Celtic captain had plenty to be pleased about.
“The first half especially was outstanding, probably the best football we’ve played for a long, long time,” Calmac told mainstream media, as reported by Scottish Sun. “There was real intensity, real purpose to our play. We should have been out of sight at that point, but that’s what football does to you.
“But credit to Hearts, they gave it a good go second half. We touched on it before the game, how it felt last season walking off the pitch after being knocked out of competitions. So we don’t want to feel like that again.
“It’s our incentive. It’s our job to make sure we try to bring silverware back to the club.”
McGregor is already showing signs of being an absolutely outstanding leader on the park for the club, a captain and an inspiration to his teammates. Yet he is always going to share the credit around for the massive improvement in the dressing room morale this season as opposed to last term. “It’s not just myself, the lads we’ve got in there are first class and have helped everyone settle in. That’s the beauty of having a good changing room. Everybody’s helping everybody settle in and that’s showing with the performances on the pitch,” he said.
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The new style of play sure is exciting to watch and McGregor is relishing working under the tutorship of Ange Postecoglou whose ideas on how the team should play the game are lighting up Scottish football. Asked if the turbo charged approach suits his game the Celtic captain was very clear in his response.
“I think it does, but also the majority of the players. We have got some good footballers, so we want to keep the tempo as high as possible, keep teams moving, chasing after the ball. That’s the way we want to play. But you’ve got to be super-fit to do that and we feel like we’re getting where we want to be.”
Calmac was denied a stunning goal against Hearts by his former teammate Craig Gordon who perhaps had seen the New Celtic captain pull off the same trick once or twice over their time playing together for club and country.
“He’s seen me do that many times in training. So I think he just read me as soon as I shifted it on to my right foot. But it was a great save. It would have been nice if it had nestled in the net. But it was a top save again from Craigy, he made a number of them again today.”
We’ve got Abada, he’s on the wing, we’ve got Kyogo he’s doing his thing! pic.twitter.com/l9Kv3OuZ3g
— Martin Thomas (@__mbhoy) August 15, 2021