SKIPPER NOW HIS OWN MAN
SINCE kick-off in the last Glasgow derby, Callum McGregor has been playing his football behind a specially-fabricated mask. Yet the midfielder’s captaincy of Celtic began with an instruction to show nothing other than his true face.
The choice of team leader was one of the priority issues in Ange Postecoglou’s creaking in-tray when he took over at Parkhead last summer.
In the midst of a full-scale rebuild of a broken squad, it was natural that the Australian should look first to the man who’d served as vice-skipper to Scott Brown but McGregor’s appointment was no shoo-in.
Even as he prepared to move halfway round the world, the Australian had been aware that the two midfielders possessed entirely different personalities.
Yet it was partly through a desire to ensure the 28-year-old would not try and ape Brown’s unique style that the new boss held off from instantly approving the succession plan.
‘This is Cal’s first season as the leader so even for him it was about making sure he imposed himself on the group in the right way,’ explained Postecoglou. ‘The key for Cal was just to be himself. That’s why I chose him for the position. The reality of it is that Scott Brown was a one-off. His influence on the squad and the football club all came from his personality.
‘That’s what great leaders do. They are genuine and not trying to be somebody else. Cal didn’t need to try and be like Scott or any other great captain. He just needed to be himself and that’s what he has done. He has understood that and grown into the role.
‘I think that’s why he has won the respect of the group. He has done it his own way with his own personality. But there’s no doubt his team-mates know he is competitive and he wants to win.
‘He knows what it takes to win at this football club and when you have someone like that you want to follow him. Because you know success lies at the end of it.’
McGregor’s inclusion in the starting XI for the February visit of Rangers was a genuine pre-match fillip for Celtic.
Missing since fracturing a cheekbone at Alloa in the first fixture after the winter break, the Scotland international was a surprise inclusion on the team sheet.
Yet his performance at the base of the midfield was typically commanding and intelligent, his ability to stay calm and retain possession constructively giving a platform for the team to race into a three-goal half-time lead.
Yet Postecoglou values his contribution in those early months of the season just as highly.
With a summer exodus still ongoing as the season started, the Australian took Celtic to Ibrox knowing both Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie were going to be transferred to Crystal Palace and Bournemouth the next day.
And yet necessity meant he had to select both.
Celtic lost the match — the second of three away defeats that set the team’s title ambitions back significantly in the opening six matches — but the controlled performance on the day helped convince his players to trust in his process of team building and evolution.
Filip Helander’s set-piece header gave Rangers the points, but Celtic’s calmness amid a hostile environment set a blueprint for how they might approach today’s match. This time with a more focused and improved batch of players, one that has already watched McGregor lift the season’s first trophy.
‘In the beginning, when things weren’t running smoothly, we made sure we had a clear understanding and a clear focus about what was important to us,’ continued Postecoglou.
‘If you start trying to impress on the players the pressures of this club just as they are literally jumping off planes and into the team, there was an opportunity there to lose the group.
‘It was more about getting through that period and creating a real resilient group — we weren’t going to make excuses, we understood and embraced the challenge of playing for this club but at the same time we knew we had to grow into the season.
‘You just have to look at the line-up on our first visit to Ibrox. We had players who were literally transferred down south straight after the game. We knew they were going but that was the line-up we had to put out that day.
‘Again, we didn’t make excuses, we understood that people would measure our progress on results and we knew that we had to improve that.
‘I think Cal and the whole group embraced the fact this was not going to be a smooth year. We just needed to get on with it.’
After a third defeat at Livingston, the team’s rhythm became established with Kyogo Furuhashi spearheading a side that made it to the turn of the year with the League Cup tucked away and within touching distance of Rangers at the top of the Premiership table.
A second transfer window allowed Postecoglou to plug the obvious gaps in his squad — and absorb the long-term injuries to Kyogo and David Turnbull.
Three new Japanese players were brought in — Reo Hatate made a splash with two goals in the win over Rangers but just as impressive has been Daizen Maeda.
Most often used from a wide left role, Maeda’s non-stop endeavour and appetite for closing down opponents has made him the team’s first line of defence.
Tired after a long-haul flight from international duty, Maeda did not start last time but today it’s likely he will be tasked with pushing back James Tavernier, one of Rangers’ key threats from the right full-back area.
While Hatate celebrated the occasion of his first cap last week, Maeda was withdrawn from Japan’s squad because of ‘conditioning’ issues.
Postecoglou confirms he is ready to go today. He continued: ‘In terms of his fitness Daizen is fine. Last week he was a bit under the weather but he has trained all week so he is fine.
‘Obviously I coached Daizen for a year and I knew what I was getting. He has this tremendous capacity for work and doing some of the things that are difficult for a lot of footballers to do — not just from a physical perspective but mentally, too.
‘He is forever trying to close down opponents. That’s the point of difference between him and a lot of attacking players and it’s why I was so keen to bring him in.
‘It’s no secret I wanted to bring him last summer but with the position Yokohama were in at the time, going for the championship, I knew I would probably not get him until January. He is giving
everything I expected him to give and there is more there. He is the kind of guy who wants to keep improving.
‘But the appetite he has for pressuring the opposition and the physical capacity he has for that — it’s not easy. It’s not just about fitness, it’s about being able to repeat effort and that is something different compared to the other attacking players we have.’
When he looks back to the circumstances his team faced in August — departing players, a scramble to integrate new signings and no away supporters in the ground — Postecoglou sees little to fear from today’s trip to Ibrox.
With Kyogo available after a three-month absence and only James Forrest now on the injured list, Postecoglou has almost a full complement of players to choose from for the first time in his tenure. A three-point cushion and vastly-superior goal difference are further causes for comfort. He added: ‘When you think about what we have had to deal with this year, and the position we are in right now, we’ve proved to be a pretty resilient group of players.
‘You can’t do that unless you have a really strong mentality and tackled every challenge in the right way.
‘That doesn’t guarantee you success but it does mean you give yourselves a chance of success in every game.
‘The players have a really strong sense of purpose about the type of football we want to play and the type of team we want to be.
‘No one can say that this group of players have had an easy run at any stage this year. Every game has been tough and when you come through those circumstances, those are the things you need to rely on moving forward.
‘Since round six our form has been pretty decent so I’ll take our form into any game at the moment.’