In the last couple of years the midfield battle has been so one-sided, Callum McGregor could have planted a flag in the centre circle and pulled out of a deckchair.
But all of a sudden the Celtic skipper knows he has a scrap on his hands in the most crucial area of the pitch. The last two Old Firm games has certainly seen a shift. McGregor has seen it too. Celtic were so dominant in the centre for three seasons it was barely a fight. Yet in the first half at Hampden in the League Cup Final and again at Ibrox the other day, it was Rangers who had the upper hand.
It was a slight shock seeing Hoops playmakers so rushed on the ball, so poor in possession and wasteful with their passes. A lot of it was down to Gers, hunting in packs and refusing to give Celtic an inch. Reo Hatate had one of those days where practically everything he touched turned to blue. Paulo Bernardo didn’t fare much better and even McGregor, who was a marked man at all times, fell into the turnover trap. It didn’t help Arne Engels falling ill on the day of the game, when the Belgian was already on the teamsheet.
But it would be a cop out to offer his absence up as a reason for defeat as this was no weakened midfield three. Not many Hoops punters would swap any of them for anyone in the Rangers squad, yet it was Nico Raskin, Mohamed Diomande and Nedim Bajrami who came out on top.
Across the city, Ibrox punters might feel Philippe Clement has finally figured out his rivals at the seventh time of asking. McGregor wouldn’t go that far – but he admitted there might need to be a tactical shift in the midfield battleground.
He said: “Yeah, they were set up with the low block and we were finding it hard to get through. We need to look at that and we need to tweak it a little bit to give us a wee bit more comfort in the game and allow us to get the territory that will make us comfortable.
“So, there’s a couple of wee warning signs there and a lot of the big moments in the game have come from that, the sort of transition moment where they’ve managed to block a pass and then play forward from there. “There are signs there that we have to fix it and try and fix it as quickly as we can.”
Defeats like Thursday have been rare for McGregor in his decade plus at Celtic. But they doesn’t mean they don’t sting when they do come along.
And that one was a real sore one. Outside of European competition, it’s hard to remember such a scudding for Celtic on Scottish soil. It wasn’t a smash-and-grab job either. Rangers had 24 shots on goal – while Celtic managed one. McGregor is not the type of man to look for excuses. He’s rather search for answers.
He said: “You don’t want to lose any game of football, and especially when you lose, you feel it straight away. You feel the tension after the game, everybody’s feeling it.
“So, yeah, there’s no point in trying to make excuses. We weren’t at the level, we never performed, and if you don’t do that, you don’t deserve to win. So you have to find the solution to that quickly.
“It just shows you that if you’re not competitive in the game then as we can happen and I think over the piece we’ve been so good in these games that maybe everyone’s a bit like, oh, what happened there? It’s probably a testament to how well we’ve done and how much we’ve managed to come here and get results and play well.
“So, it’s just a reminder, you know, just that right team, well, if you’re not quite on the money then, you know, these games are tough and you can lose them and then, you know, the pressure starts to build.
“It was the game played out and obviously, they’re sort of fighting for the life a wee bit as well and they can pick energy in the game and we just, we didn’t get to get through it at all so that can happen.
“You know, they’re good players, they’re a good team and then when you let them get momentum like that you’re going to struggle in the game.”
Glasgow born and bred, McGregor may have ran the show in the city for years but he has experienced Old Firm pain before and he knows what’s next. The curtains get closed for a day and then it’s back to business.
And the captain is glad the games will continue to come thick and fast, with St Mirren in the East End tomorrow followed by Dundee United on Wednesday.
McGregor said: “It’s important that we reflect on the game and then we get it out of system come Sunday against St Mirren. There’s a lot of football to be played in January and we just need to reset and go again.
“That’s the good thing. There’s a game in three days, so we can try and rectify it. Obviously, it is a different opponent and everything else, but you can try and get it out of your system. There’s a lot of football in January, so just go back to trying to tick them off one at a time and get that performance, get the high energy and just tick them off one at a time.”