Inside Callum McGregor's record-breaking Celtic comeback

Making his first start after a two-month injury absence, McGregor struck in the 87th minute to ensure Celtic made a winning return to Scottish Premiership duties after the World Cup break. 

The Hoops have navigated the absence of their captain well during his injury lay-off, picking up maximum points in the league while the Scotland international recovered from a knee injury sustained in the Champions League in October. 

However, his decisive intervention in the closing minutes at Pittodrie, and his performance throughout, were a reminder of just how important the captain is to Ange Postecoglou’s side.

Here, we break down McGregor’s match-wining return to the side, digging further into the numbers behind his influential performance…

READ MORE: How patient Celtic's pass masters overcame Aberdeen's anti-football approach - StatsBomb data match report

Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin adopted an extreme low-block for the visit of Celtic on Saturday, one which saw the home side essentially give up the ball completely. 

This meant the Hoops utterly dominated possession, even more so than usual with their 79 per cent the most they have had the ball in a league match so far this season. 

McGregor, taking up his usual position back at the base of the midfield on his return, was therefore unsurprisingly on the ball... a lot. 

He completed an incredible 170 passes, the most ever recorded by data provider Wyscout for the academy graduate and 41 more than the entire Aberdeen team managed to complete on the day (129). 

The only other time that Wyscout registered even close to that many completed passes for McGregor was in 2016-17, Brendan Rodgers’s first season in charge, when he completed 150 passes while playing at left-back against Hamilton Academical. 

Other notable pass completion highs for McGregor include games against Kilmarnock in 2019-20 (137) and St Johnstone in 2018-19 (133) yet still nothing close to the number he racked up at Pittodrie at the weekend. 

It wasn’t just the sheer volume of passes completed on Saturday, though, it was how McGregor used his huge amount of time on the ball to orchestrate Celtic’s relentless efforts to break Aberdeen down. 

As can be seen in his pass map, due to Aberdeen’s setup McGregor’s passes on Saturday were more advanced than would be expected for a player positioned as the deepest-lying midfielder. 

Many of his passes in the final third were horizontal. He constantly worked the ball from side to side as he looked to unlock the home side’s deep defensive lines. 

When McGregor was offered the chance to progress vertically, he did not pass them up, finding team-mates in space in and around the Aberdeen box on several occasions. 

An example of this was when fizzed a pass around Ylber Ramadani to find Reo Hatate on the edge of the Aberdeen box. The Japanese midfielder then turned but was unable to keep his left-footed shot down. 

He also attempted to mix things up on a few occasions too. The best example of this was a perfectly-weighted ball over the top that Kyogo Furuhashi latched onto. 

Receiving the ball up from Cameron Carter-Vickers on the halfway line, under no pressure at all from any Aberdeen player, McGregor executed an excellent lofted ball that took out the whole Aberdeen defence. 

Unfortunately, despite rounding Dons keeper Kelle Roos, Kyogo's touch to control the ball with his chest forced him wide and his angled shot was blocked on the byline.

The pass to Kyogo, and the one to Hatate, were two of six shot assists (defined by Wyscout as the last action of a player before a team-mate has a shot) that McGregor pulled off on Saturday. 

As with his total completed passes, this was also the most recorded for him by Wyscout in a single game. He previously registered five on a few occasions. 

These record-breaking numbers are just part of the story of McGregor’s match. Just as important, and something that can’t be seen in the numbers, was his capacity to dictate the tempo with his passing.

“Ball speed is very important for us," Postecoglou said in his very first training session. "Ball speed is number one. Even when we’re keeping possession, I don’t want the ball to move slowly.”

This very philosophy was there for all to see on Saturday with McGregor playing a key role in the intense search for the breakthrough. 

It is that knack for knowing when to move the ball at speed, as well as knowing when to calm things down by slowing the play, that is arguably something no other player in the Celtic squad can replicate.

That was exactly what the manager pointed to post-match as being key in finally wearing down their stubborn opponents.

“We needed that today because it's easy for me to sit here and say we've got to stick to the process and play our football but when you're out there and you're so dominant and you haven't scored it's easy to get anxious," Postecoglou added. "But Callum kept the foot on the accelerator just the right amount. We accelerated where we needed to and the other times we just moved the ball around and I think they got really tired towards the end as well.”

Beyond his passing prowess, some of McGregor’s other numbers from Saturday further reinforce just how influential he was on his return to the side. 

In possession he also registered three progressive runs, his joint-most in the league this season and coincidently with the home win over Aberdeen on the opening day of the season. 

The captain also did his bit off the ball on the rare occasions Aberdeen did get forward, winning three of his five defensive duels, making two interceptions and also registering nine recoveries. 

One of those recoveries included working back to help out after Duk and Leighton Clarkson managed to the better of Anthony Ralston and Daizen Maeda down Celtic’s right-hand side in the first half. 

Stepping in to win the ball, he dealt with the attention of both Clarkson and Harry Coulson, eventually winning a free-kick to alleviate the pressure. 

His final, and match-winning contribution, was of course that crucial strike in the final five minutes of the match that secured all three points. 

Coming from his fifth shot in the match - his most in any game so far this season, again emphasising just how willing he was to take responsibility on his return - the strike that finally broke the Reds' resistance was worthy of winning any match. 

Set up thanks to good off-the-ball movement by the impressive Greg Taylor, and a smart lay-off by substitute James Forrest, the low-angled drive that cracked past Roos was the perfect way to cap a memorable return to the side for the Celtic skipper.