Callum McGregor's Blunt Assessment After Celtic's Loss

Callum McGregor did not bother with diplomacy. He walked off the Ibrox pitch, looked at what had just unfolded, and drew a hard line between the two sides.

“I think the difference between the two sides was you’ve seen a team and then you’ve seen a team of individuals,” the Celtic captain said. “Rangers were a team and you could see that. We looked like a team of individuals that wanted to do our own thing and play when we got the ball, not necessarily run when you don’t have the ball.”

In one sentence, he cut through any excuses. Effort. Togetherness. Work without the ball. All missing.

You can’t defend with six players

McGregor’s criticism did not stop at vague notions of attitude. He went after the collective, accusing his teammates of being reluctant to run – the one non‑negotiable at this level and in this fixture.

“That’s the one thing you can’t do when you come here is just don’t run. You can’t defend with six players, it’s impossible. We’re trying to get the message to everyone that we have to be a team.

“We have to be the team that we want to be. We need to find a way to do that quickly because we lost a big game in LASK. We lost another big game today and it’s not acceptable.”

For a club where the support will overlook mistakes but never a lack of graft, his words cut straight to the heart of the matter. The players, he knows, will not hesitate to collect their salaries. The least expected in return is maximum effort, especially in a derby and in a week like this.

“If we want to be a good Celtic team then we have to win the big games,” he said. “That’s one thing we’ve always done is win big games and turned up when it mattered. So far this season we’ve been bitty in games and we need to fix it.”

The manager had called the result and performance a wake‑up call. McGregor’s tone suggested this alarm has been ringing for a while, not least after the Champions League collapse in Linz against LASK.

“We’ve put ourselves under pressure,” he admitted. “We need to respond on Thursday and we need to respond on Sunday.”

Donovan the exception on a brutal day

McGregor did not sugar-coat the display. He described Celtic as poor “in pretty much every area of the game” and, on the evidence, it was hard to argue. One player, though, he felt merited credit: Colby Donovan, probably the lowest‑paid player on the pitch.

“We were poor in pretty much every area of the game,” the captain said. “Once we went behind in the game we never looked like we were recovering really to be honest. We had a couple of good moments early on.

“If we take them it’s a different game. And we know that coming here you’re not going to get hundreds and hundreds of chances. You get moments in the game where if you take them it can totally change the outlook of the game. I felt like once we went one behind then we never really looked like getting back in it to be honest.”

The harsh reality? Once Rangers went in front, Celtic never truly threatened to drag themselves back. The performance sagged, the belief drained, and by the time the third goal went in, the contest was gone.

At that point, McGregor’s job changed. Pride and damage limitation took over.

“You don’t want fours and fives for sure,” he said. “As soon as the goal went in, then I’m saying to Cam and Scalesy, ‘Look, no more goals, we have to just tighten this up’.

“Of course, we always want to get back in the game. And we always want to be a team that, even at 3-0 down, you still want to have a chance, but you have to understand the circumstance you’re in as well. If it starts to run at fours and fives, then you’re talking about a different ballgame.”

The verdict from the stands and from the captain was the same: at Celtic, you deliver or you don’t last. You can’t hide. You can’t coast. You can’t point fingers elsewhere. On this occasion, only Donovan escaped with genuine praise.

“Too bitty” – and running out of excuses

McGregor spoke like a man who has seen the club at its best and knows exactly how far this team is falling short.

“You can see it, 100 per cent,” he said. “You can see it, especially for the guys that have been here for a long time and the guys that have been watching Celtic for a long time.

“You see the team and how it functions and how it performs and how it behaves. And it’s just been too bitty. So we have to find a way to bring it back and bridge that gap and start to bring it together. Because if we don’t, then you’ll have more days like this.”

He acknowledged there are new faces still trying to settle, still trying to understand the demands and the system. But he was clear: that can only excuse so much, and only for so long.

“There are some new guys in, trying to get them bedded in, trying to get them to understand the system, how we want the Celtic team to look,” he said. “There have been shades of it this season but not enough. So eventually the penny has to drop, we have to get there. Because you can’t just turn it on and off, it’s impossible.

“Especially when you come to venues like this. You have to be good against the ball and when you get it, you have to be the version of Celtic that we want to be. And we know it gets us success.”

So where does the change come from? For McGregor, it is not a mystery. It is repetition, clarity, and responsibility.

“It’s reinforcement, it’s training, it’s coaching, it’s all of these things,” he said. “The guys are given good information. We’ve been doing this a long time. You need to bring it together because it’s two big games that we’ve lost.

“And you probably won’t get many more before the pressure really ramps up. And we have to be honest about that, let’s not shy away from it. So we have to fix it.”

No hiding place now

Fix it they must, and fast. Two huge fixtures loom this week, culminating in Rangers coming to Celtic Park on Sunday. Sixty thousand Celtic supporters will be there, fully aware of what happened at Ibrox and fully aware of their captain’s blunt assessment.

The fans can live with a lot. Bad days. Missed chances. Even poor form. What they will not tolerate is a team that does not run, does not press, does not fight.

Time to deliver, Bhoys.