Callum McGregor has been speaking about Celtic's problems, and it's going to be interesting to see how the media and pundits handle it.
Teammate Cameron Carter-Vickers was heavily criticised recently after he suggested Celtic were playing 'random' football and that they 'needed a script to stick to' after playing a part in a second Old Firm defeat in as many weeks.
Back then, we defended Carter-Vickers amid the defender getting a slaughtering from pundits, who believed he should have kept his comments in-house.
But Carter-Vickers said in the same interview that he was behind Martin O'Neill, he just saw an issue with how the team were playing and was honest about it. How dare he.
Now we have seen McGregor do the game, and even in an interview with the club, not with a broadcaster straight after the game.
He said: "I agree. You are seeing a lot of that. It’s not really having a nailed-on profile for each of the positions. The players behave like a winger, or they behave like a striker. You can get away with it for a few games but if it’s a striker playing as a winger, you are going to get that behaviour a lot of the time.
“You’ve got enough quality so you can score goals and get away with it. But we have to try to get the team functioning the way it should."
Now you wonder whether the media and pundits will treat those comments the same, because what is the difference? McGregor is seeing an issue with Celtic's game and pointing it out.
It's an easily fixable issue, too, because O'Neill doesn't need to play Kasper Hogh despite him being out of form, and if he doesn't play Hogh, he can play Camilo Durán centrally and play Haissem Hassan on the right. Callum Osmand has been playing on the left, but Jota and Yang Hyun-jun are closing in on full fitness, and Sebastian Tounekti remains an option, albeit it he's out of form.
When Carter-Vickers came in for criticism, the pundits tried to attack him over his form, but the reality is that he has been Celtic's best centre-back so far this season.
Meanwhile, McGregor has had his struggles this season, especially in Europe. In fact, defensively, it can be argued that McGregor has been a major weakness.
Celtic have conceded the same goal on repeat in Europe The ball comes out of the defence and the holding midfielders are missing, they are buried in the defence, McGregor comes running out from too deep, doesn't get there in time, and the other team usually score from around the edge of the box.
McGregor has been superb for Celtic over the years, and he still has a lot to offer. In fact, it's obvious that Celtic have sold McGregor and O'Neill short by not signing a true pivot midfielder with legs to play alongside the former.
But Celtic are where they are, and this is not to attack McGregor but to point out the hypocrisy, because while it was a case of 'let's all pile on' Carter-Vickers, that will not be the case with McGregor because of his stature and the reputation he has.
But the bottom line is, as we said back when Carter-Vickers made the comments, that players should be entitled to make comments on how the team is playing, and it's refreshing to see.
McGregor has every right to make those comments, and we are glad he did. But we aren't the ones who took aim at Carter-Vickers.
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