Callum McGregor - Undroppable

One of the highlights of Brendan Rodgers’ time as Celtic manager is the vast improvement in players whose Celtic careers seemed on the verge of being over, James Forrest and Dedryck Boyata spring to mind, and in the last few months Callum McGregor has come to the fore and has become an integral part of the Celtic side.

It seemed that after an indifferent 2015-16 season McGregor was going to be a squad player at most, and indeed he was in and out of the team at various stages last season, but he really came into his own around April, with goals in some very big games, including the opener in the 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final win over Rangers

and he followed this up a week later with the third goal in the now legendary 5-1 victory over Rangers at Ibrox.

He showed his mettle when forced to play as an emergency left-back in the Scottish Cup final, and despite almost letting Aberdeen in for a goal he still ended up with a winner’s medal at the end.

This season has begun superbly for McGregor, after being dropped for the home time against Rosenborg he responded in style with a hat-trick in the 5-0 victory over Sunderland

and he rounded off a man of the match display in yesterday’s 4-1 win over Hearts with a fine goal.

Following from his goalscoring exploits at the end of last season, Brendan Rodgers must have encouraged him to shoot on site as yesterday he peppered the Hearts goal with long range efforts. McGregor’s recent form is so good that he is keep players like Tom Rogic and Stuart Armstrong out of the team, and it seems certain that he will be capped by Scotland in the near future. He is fully justifying his selection in the team and if his good performances continue he’ll be a mainstay of the side.