AS a grizzled veteran of a fair few epic encounters with Aberdeen at Hampden, Callum McGregor is well aware that Celtic will experience some fraught moments in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final against their old foes this evening.
Yet, the midfielder, who will take his place in the Parkhead club’s starting line-up after recovering from the minor injury which ruled him out of their last two games, also knows that he and his team mates will be able to keep their cool when they do.
Their manager Brendan Rodgers is bidding to make it 12 out of 12 wins at the national stadium tonight. So what is the secret to his success at the world-famous arena? Having the best players? Getting his tactics right? The support of the fans?
McGregor has been on the park in the most of those triumphs during the past eight years so he is better placed than almost anyone to offer an opinion on why Rodgers has done so well.
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He feels it is the calmness which the Northern Irishman imparts on his players which has been the key.
“When he came in, there was a clear idea about what he wants his team to work on and a clear identity,” said the Celtic captain. “We saw that the last time and we’ve seen it this time as well.
“I think it's just normalising big situations. When you arrive in those moments, nothing fazes you because of the way you train, the way you prepare, the way you live your life. That builds you towards those big moments.
“When you're a team that wants to be successful, you have to arrive into those moments and be comfortable in the pressure. I think that's probably one of the biggest things he did bring with him, that confidence and calmness. Every day he prepares you for the big moments and for trying to be a successful team.
“His record's fantastic. That comes from believing in yourself, believing in the group and having the calmness to negotiate any difficult moments that you come across. The way that he trains the players on a daily basis, even the psychological aspect of the game, is important. When you arrive there you have to be calm.
“But the more times you experience that then the easier it is when you get to the point where the big prizes are on offer. You're calmer, you know what you want to do, you know how the picture should look and you're ready to react to it when you need to.”
“I think in life, the first time you do something new, then of course you have that feeling of anxiety and everything else,” he said. “But the more experience you get, the older you get, you realise that once you find that pattern and you find that sweet spot, then it becomes another day at work. You realise what the outcome is.
“Of course, it's a big thing, but you have to be calm to bring the best of yourself. You have to be calm and clear and understand what you want to do on the day. So I think it gets easier with time and so it changes over time.
“I don't mean that as in you don't understand the importance of the game, of course you do. But to be overawed with these big situations when you get to pressure moments, to let yourself be distracted by anything else, then it makes what is already a difficult day even harder if you're not clear in your thought process.
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“I'd like to think I am clear more often than not. Again, that's just a byproduct of the training level that we've got, the clarity from the manager and the experience. When you add all those things together, then that's where you want to arrive in those moments.
“Even if there is a bit of chaos in the game, you're trying to find the calm and get the team back playing the way they should. So, for sure, you're going to have difficult moments, we'll have difficult moments tomorrow. You have to be ready to deal with that if you want to progress.”
McGregor is sure today’s match will be every bit as frenetic. He has been impressed with how Jimmy Thelin’s charges, who drew their Premiership encounter 2-2 at Parkhead last month, have acquitted themselves this term and knows the Scottish champions will need to be at their best to go through.
“Yeah, it was a crazy game, a crazy game,” he said. “The way the scoring went was really random. But that's the type of chaos that can happen in these games. It's always important that you find a way through that and obviously last year that was penalties.
“Hopefully we can have more control of the game tomorrow and it's a bit easier for us. But that's the type of day that can fool you. You've got to have all aspects of the game to bring that together to make you win it.
“Our last game showed you the resilience of their group. They're totally committed to what they've been asked to do. They've got the confidence, they've got the momentum from the start of the season.
“What Aberdeen have shown is they're very much together, they know what they're doing, there's a clarity about how they work. They've been clinical in their games so far. So we want to limit the chances that we give them as much as possible.
“It was a little bit of a lesson for us in terms of missed chances for us last time. If you don't take the chances when you're on top against anyone then the momentum of the game will change at some point. But it just sharpens the mind.”
