Callum McGregor brought everything Celtic missed in Derby defeat

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The Celtic Star

·31. März 2025

Callum McGregor brought everything Celtic missed in Derby defeat

Callum showing the guile and experience we were missing in the Glasgow Derby…

Celtic v Hearts, Scottish Premiership 29/03/2025. Referee Kevin Clancy during match at Celtic Park on 29 March 2025. Photo Malcolm Mackenzie PSI

Callum McGregor made his return to the Celtic side on Saturday, and put in a terrific performance as he showed us what we were missing in the derby defeat to theRangers a fortnight ago.

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Celtic lacked guile that day, we missed his experience, leadership and a real quality to hurt our opponents. Callum has all those qualities in abundance and he showed that as we cruised to victory over Hearts at Celtic Park as another step towards our 13th title in 14 seasons was taken.

Celtic weathered an early storm

The Celtic captain may not get always get the credit he deserves, but I think even his biggest critics would agree that his presence was hugely missed a fortnight ago. What Celtic lacked that day was clearly evident against the Jambos as we, after weathering a early storm, fully dominated proceedings to take another step towards the title.

Callum McGregor of Celtic at full time during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on March 29, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The foothold we had in the middle of the park was one of the main contributors in our comfortable win and better performance, and Callum was a major influence in that.

The main reason for Derby failure and Scotland defeat

That failure to take control the midfield was one of the main reasons for our failure a fortnight ago, and once again proves how vital Callum’s presence in the team is to our success. It’s a longer term problem but at some stage we are going to have to replace Calmac in our midfield and that is going to be a real challenge.

In the recent Scotland games against Greece you could see how much Callum McGregor was missed in Steve Clarke’s side.

In the meantime for a few more seasons at least we can fully appreciate just how special our skipper is.

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