Club Captain Callum McGregor praised Celtic’s performance in the 3-1 League Cup win over Hibs at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon but reckons that all that was missing was a few extra goals that the showing merited.
“I thought we were excellent, especially in the first half. The only thing is, can we get more goals and try and kill the game at 2-0 and get three before half-time, but I thought the guys responded really well to the goal that Hibs got.
“We came out in the second half and took control of the game again. It could have been four or five if we had made some more of our opportunities but overall, a really good day.”
Callum commented on the style of football which is so pleasing on the eye for the Celtic support with Paradise around capacity yesterday. That’s not always the case for League Cup matches that are not on the season ticket. And comparisons and contrasts can me made with the small crowd at Hampden the day before when theRangers and St Johnstone played in front of a crowd of around 20,000.
On the brand of football now being played by Celtic under Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic captain reckons that it’s now coming good after an adjustment spell that inevitably follows from a managerial change.
“With a change of manager and new players, it takes a little bit of time to settle in,” the Celtic captain said. “But I think you can see the bulk of the 12 months of work we’ve done together. Everything looks slick, everything looks sharp, everyone looks hungry, fit and strong.
“We’re in a good place but the key to staying in a good place is continuing to work hard and demanding the very best of each other.”
McGregor was full of praise for Daizen Maeda who played through the middle with Kyogo rested as a precaution after his shoulder issue re-emerged last weekend at Easter Road. The Japanese forward got off to a flying start with the opener inside the first few minutes and added a second shortly afterwards. Those goals incidentally probably answer Brendan Rodgers’ own question and needing a third striker in his squad to compete with Kyogo and new signing Adam Idah. Daizen is the man!
“He’s come in and played a slightly different role today. We probably saw how good he is at it last year in pre-season where he scored a lot of goals from that striker position. But he’s come playing slightly out of position today, does it for the team, works so hard and gets rewarded with two goes. So a fantastic performance from him.
The Celtic captain praised quarter final opponents Falkirk, shortly after the draw was made at Celtic Park.
“That’s the job. When you get to these rounds, you want to progress and get into a semi-final,” Callum said. “So a full focus will be on that when the game comes around. Obviously we know that Falkirk have been excellent last season and have carried that onto this season as well. So it will be a decent test for us and we need to make sure that we’re on the money on the day.”
Match Highlights below from Premier Sports…
We are now back to where we were under Ange, in regards to the amount of goal scoring opportunities that are been created by this Rodgers team now?
Yet we look a more structured team at present imo?
The formation of the team may remain the same, but seen far more variation in our attacking play, especially as we look like a far more controlled team overall imo?
Actually believe that we are capable of winning every single match within Scottish football this season?
We have already achieved an invincible season, think we are capable of outdoing that achievement this season at present?