Callum McGregor has conceded that Celtic’s lacklustre display in their 2-0 defeat at Tannadice ranks as the poorest showing across Martin O’Neill’s two spells tasked with steadying the side this season…
Despite the disastrous outing, McGregor insists the setback against Dundee United is NOT a decisive blow to their pursuit of the league title.
The 2-0 loss on Tayside leaves Celtic trailing leaders Hearts by five points, with only seven fixtures remaining in the Premiership campaign.
Nevertheless, McGregor remains confident that the title race is far from over. With both Hearts and the Ibrox club still due to visit Celtic after the split, he believes there is ample opportunity to close the gap.
Addressing concerns over whether the defeat has derailed Celtic’s ambitions, he said via The Herald: “No, I don’t think so. You don’t want to lose football games and that’s obvious. But there’s still so much football to be played. The top five teams are really competitive. So, there’s points to play for there. And like I said, we have to look at what we can do and be as good as what we can be in terms of what we’ve got.
“And then put a run together that gives us the best chance of winning the league. Listen, time will tell, we’ll see if we need to win them all or not. But I think we have to go on a run. Certainly, you’ve got to win at least five or six to have a good chance. So, listen, we know where we are.”
“And I think now’s the time for calm heads. It’s an emotional situation, of course it is. But we have to be calm and understand where we want to be as a team and how we’re going to get there. And then ultimately it’s the players then carrying that out on the pitch as well.”
McGregor added: “It was obviously poor. A poor afternoon, poor result, poor performance as well. I think we have to be honest. Over the two spells with Martin and Shaun [Maloney], I think that’s probably the worst that we’ve been. We had a pretty bad day and we have to accept that. The players have been really, really good over the two spells.”
“We have dropped too many points. When you go there, it’s difficult. Obviously, everyone sees the conditions, the type of team that we want to be. Of course, it plays a factor in the game. You want to try and overcome that, of course you do. I think we have to look at ourselves. We never did enough.”
“We never really created that many chances either. So, it’s one we have to take on the chin. Now we’ve obviously got a wee break and go away, dissect it. And when we come back, we have to dial in. There are seven huge games to try to be as good a team as we can be. And hopefully we do enough in those seven games to be where we want to be.”
Celtic anticipate a timely fitness boost following the international break, with players like Alistair Johnston and Arne Engels expected to return to the squad.
However, uncertainty remains over Julian Araujo, who is undergoing further assessment at parent club Bournemouth as the Hoops await clarity on the severity of his injury.
Tomas Cvancara was unavailable for Sunday’s match after struggling with illness, but McGregor is confident the squad will be strengthened by the imminent return of several important players.
He said: “Yeah, exactly. There’s obviously been many challenges this season as well in terms of big players being missing for large periods of time. It looks like we’re getting a couple back, which are big players for us. So, it really strengthens the squad again and gives us some options in terms of what we can do. It’s on us, so we’re happy to take that responsibility.”
Conor Spence
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Take it on the chin ? I think about eight of the players who played on Sunday should take it on the arse , on the end of a size ten boot . Jock Stein stated that , ” The Celtic jersey does not shrink to fit inferior players” , there were , however , lots of shirts on Sunday which had shrunk a long time ago . These were the players who are rejects from other clubs but apparently good enough for Celtic . These were the players who have been signed in successive Transfer windows and can’t even get a place on the bench and wouldn’t even get a game for a Junior team .
The Celtic support has been living with Hope and dying in Despair for the last two seasons . The Board are a crowd of imposters who know absolutely nothing about running a modern football club and are a CLIQUE of salary theives . Under their watch we have a coaching staff who are , to say the least , Questionable and a Managerial position still up for grabs . At a club the size and reputation of Celtic , this is totally unacceptable . Sunday’s setback has been on the cards all season and the reality is that other SPFL clubs , have players equal in skill or better than Celtic . We need a total reset similar to that carried-out by Jock Stein in the sixties . The young or home grown tallent must be out there ; players who are Celtic fans and want to play for the jersey . Buy Class players and pay the money for guys in the mould of :- Auld , Meravckic , Larsson , Van Dyke , Sutton etc. as the spine of your team and take -it from there . The only problem is ; first of all you have to find another Jock Stein ? Sunday should be a lesson to everyone connected with Celtic and the motto should be , ” The rubbish stops now and the real Celtic is reborn ” . We can , with the help of God and a miracle , still win the League .