Callum McGregor has displayed the sort of spirit that has made him the key player that he is in Neil Lennon’s side after refusing to accept the 3-2 win over Livingston as anything other than disappointing.
Speaking to Celtic TV, and reported by The Daily Record, McGregor pinpointed what he and his teammates need to work on to return to the sort of dominance that saw them drop points just four times on the way to the league title last season:
“The last 15 minutes when they got the goal to bring them back into it at 3-2, we probably made it more difficult than it should have been.
“At the start of the second half, we looked good and comfortable. We get the third one and you maybe fancy us to see it out 3-1 or 4-1 but that’s something we have to really work on in terms of conceding goals.
“We’re conceding too many as a team. Shots from the edge of the box. It’s not really us, we need to work on that.”
Of course, the Scotland international is correct, we are conceding too many goals, and winning games by the odd goal could eventually catch up on us, all it takes is a dodgy decision from an official or a mistake from a defender to turn three points into one – that Livi missed a decent chance to equalise at 3-2 won’t have gone amiss either.
Who is at fault for the goals being conceded?
Manager
Midfield
Defence
Goalkeeper
Fraser Forster’s absence is a big one but Vasilios Barkas has not done a lot wrong between the sticks, the problem – as McGregor rightly points out – is in front of him, the fact that we are still winning when performing poorly can only be taken as a positive with fine tuning needed to see a return to the sort of form displayed in early 2020 on the march to becoming champions for the ninth season in a row.