John Kennedy has claimed that Celtic captain Callum McGregor can be the difference maker for the Hoops at Ibrox this coming Sunday. The Bhoys travel to the home of their foe for a lunchtime kick-off on 7 April, which will be live on Sky Sports for all to view, and the assistant manager reckons a returning Cal Mac could raise the levels within the squad for what has the potential to be a decisive Glasgow Derby.
Celtic have made life difficult for themselves this season by blowing an eight-point lead over their closest rivals before Christmas time when alarm bells were starting to ring for Brendan Rodgers and his men. Defeats at Rugby Park to Kilmarnock and at Celtic Park to Hearts in December, derailed the team and with such a lack of consistency when it comes to picking our best players, we’ve suffered in the process.
Leader of the pack
Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate returned to the starting line-up together for the first time in a long while at the Toni Macaroni Arena against Livingston at the weekend, and the manager and his assistant will be hoping the captain makes it a Treble when they head to Govan to face Phillipe Clement’s side. “He’s the captain, the leader of the group,” Kennedy said via Glasgow Times. “Everyone turns to him.
“The good thing is that outwith Cal, we have other good leaders in Joe (Hart), Cameron (Carter-Vickers), Ali Johnston and these boys. They can pick up when he’s not there. But as the manager has said, hopefully Cal will be back in [full]training in the middle of the week. We’ll get him through that then the manager will decide later in the week whether or not he’s fit to play. It does [lift others when he is playing]and that’s what good players do.
“It’s not just their impact as a player. It’s very much about what they do for people around them.The best players you always see making others better, and that’s very much the case with Cal. When they’re not there sometimes the other guys have to carry a wee bit of an extra burden and there is more pressure on them. But the more good players you have in the team, the better.”
Momentum Shift
The former Celtic defender added that it feels as if the team are starting to gain traction again, with players returning from injury and others hitting their stride at the ideal time. “Coming into this run-in, when you start to get all your players back in the group, it definitely makes us stronger,” he said. “You can sense that. It gives us more belief and more momentum to go into the important part of the season.”
Paul Gillespie
Been very critical upon so many of the decision making Rodgers has carried out within far to many games for my liking this season?
Yet he faces possibly the biggest decision yet this season upon calmac this season imo?
Fail to see how calmac can possibly be fit enough to last 90 minutes, even if capable of starting the scum game?
So should calmac start, where will Rodgers look to play him, and in what role?
Would it be the wisest of decisions to be playing 2 midfielders, with little chance of being fully fit to last a full 90 minutes, especially when the intensity of the match is going to be as massive as its going to be?
Such decisions is where Rodgers gets paid the big bucks to get right, especially within a game where a full 90 minute performance will be required?
Personally think iwata will make way for calmac if he’s available, which would be harsh upon iwata, where he’s looking quite impressive in the calmac role lately imo?
Yet potentially iwata and Paulo as replacements for calmac and Hatate later on, wouldn’t be the worst options available to ourselves either, within the game either?
Oreily form has been a bit hit and miss of late, yet we still don’t seem to have a replacement available for Oreily as of yet, so possibly looking for a huge game from Oreily, who is potentially going to be our full 90 minutes midfielder imo?
We have allowed ourselves to get bullied in the midfield areas within to many games this season, and can’t afford for that to happen on Sunday?
Get the midfield areas sorted out correctly then our extra quality should shine through and provide the ammunition to hand out another Hun skelping within there own shithole imo?