Celtic Captain Callum McGregor's Brutal Assessment After Rangers Defeat
Callum McGregor didn’t bother sugar-coating it. Celtic went to Ibrox for a quarter-final and came away looking like strangers.
Rangers cruised to a three-goal win on Sunday, and their opposite captain laid bare the gulf between the sides. Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, McGregor admitted Celtic had been miles off it – not just technically, but in attitude and unity.
"It wasn't us. The difference between the two sides was you saw a team and then you saw a team of individuals as well," he said, a brutal assessment of his own dressing room.
Where Rangers hunted in packs, Celtic splintered. McGregor highlighted exactly that: one side functioning as a collective, the other breaking apart under pressure when it mattered most in a high-stakes tie.
What angered him most was the running – or lack of it.
He pointed to a squad that wanted the ball but didn’t want the dirty work when it was lost. "We looked like a team of individuals who like to do our own thing and play when we got the ball, not necessarily run when you don't have the ball, [which is] the thing you can't do when you come here," he said.
At Ibrox, you either match the work rate or you get punished. Celtic never came close.
McGregor, wearing the armband, was clear about the non-negotiables in that kind of environment. "You can't defend with six players, it's impossible," he warned, underlining how exposed Celtic had been when too many shirked their defensive responsibilities.
The defeat did not arrive in isolation.
Celtic are still reeling from a collapse in Europe that has left scars. They had one foot in the Champions League play-off round after a 3-0 first-leg win over Austrian side LASK, only to implode in the return match. A 5-1 defeat on the night turned a commanding position into a 5-4 aggregate exit, another defensive shambles that raised serious questions about the team’s resilience.
That memory flashed back for McGregor as the goals flew in at Ibrox. The fear of another humiliation was real. He admitted that, in the middle of the game, his instructions to the back line became brutally simple.
"[Y]ou don't want fours and fives for sure. As soon as the goals go in, then I'm saying to Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales, no more goals," he revealed.
When a Celtic captain is reduced to damage limitation in an Old Firm quarter-final, the alarm bells are deafening.
There is, however, no pause button on their season. The fixtures keep coming, whether this team is ready or not.
Celtic now turn to the Europa League, where they host Hungarian side Ferencvaros on Thursday in a game that will test both their mentality and their organisation. Three days later, Rangers come to Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership for an immediate rematch.
The criticism has been public. The flaws are obvious. Now the question is just as stark: can this Celtic side rediscover a team before their season unravels any further?
