Celtic's Callum McGregor reveals why going solo in midfield shouldn't leave Ange Postecoglou's side open

The dispensing of one central defensive midfield type in the system favoured by Ange Postecoglou could be entitled to leave Celtic captain Callum McGregor feeling a little lonely. And vulnerable.

Celtic captain Callum McGregor has given the thumbs-up to the greater responsibility placed on him by Ange Postecoglou now playing him as a solitary deep-lying midfielder in the Australian's orthodox formation. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

For the past three years, the 28-year-old was one of two number sixes, as the roles are known in football parlance. Most of the time he rode side-saddle to Scott Brown in this central channel, with Ismaila Soro alongside him for a spell last season. Now, he is a man alone with two central attacking midfielders, in the form of Tom Rogic and David Turnbull, supporting the forward line as advanced number eights, as these playmakers tend to be labelled.

The switch under the Australian this season has been cited as leaving Celtic too open in cross-border encounters such as the one awaiting them in Europa League at home to Ferencvaros. But if the tactical adjustments that Postecoglou has made are played as their manager schools them to be, McGregor maintains it should not leave gaps for Celtic to be countered on.

“The manager wants to dominate the ball and create overloads centrally, with full-backs coming in. So a lot of the time when you’re trying to build up you’ve got two central [players] as well,” said the Scotland international. “That allows the two number eights to play a bit higher like two tens which then gives their midfield players a problem. So it’s designed to give you control in the middle third. You have that extra number but are still pinning back them with your extra number ten, as such. That’s the way he wants to play and in terms of keeping the ball and actually progressing it through the pitch you need technically good players in there to do that. I think the ones we’ve got in there are capable of doing that.”

McGregor believes that Celtic remain capable of progressing from Group G, despite losing 4-0 at home to Bayer Leverkusen a fortnight ago, on the back of their opening game 4-3 reverse away to Real Betis. Only all six six points from their double-header this month against the Budapest side can keep them in contention, but the Celtic fulcrum doesn’t seem daunted by that necessity. Even as the one player who knows first hand the threat that can be posed by Ferencvaros at Parkhead, the midfielder likely to be the sole survivor of the Champions League qualifying exit at their hands in August 2020.

“You just never know in football,” he said. “Obviously we’ve had a tough start in terms of the group. We know where we are now. But anything can happen in football. That’s what we have to do – look after ourselves in terms of performances and results. We’ll try and get a positive result on Tuesday and then we’ll just see what happens. We have to maintain the belief that we can still qualify out of the group. There are still four games to go so who’s to say we can’t do it. We’re just taking the game in isolation. It’s almost a new team for us, obviously a new manager, so they won’t have that experience from last year. We’re trying to keep a clear head and look at the game objectively. We know what needs to be done.”

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