Tom Rogic

I keep seeing this, oh, we have to buy a defensive midfielder, which is another topic we might come back to, etc., Are his legs going? Can he cover all the ground, et cetera, et cetera? And then you've got other player, Benjamin Negrin, who, as I say, there seems to be a certain section of the support, a small section, who judge him as a central midfielder when he's actually like a second striker or more.

I would say if you wanted to compare him, compare him with Tom Rogic.

If I was doing a comparison, that's what I would do.

He's like a number 10, a second striker, that's how he plays.

And the fact that Camilo Duran is nearly posting up Dyson Maida levels of pressing effort doesn't make up for the fact that the organisation isn't there because pressing is a team game.

And you don't have to be the most athletic player in the world for it to be effective.

Andropos de Coglou had Celtic pressing highly effectively with Tom Rogic and David Turnbull being number eights, which is crazy when you think about it.

I mean, he basically destroyed them.

Callum McGregor cannot play a 90-minute game.

And Benjamin Negrin, He gives me Tom Rogic vibes.

He can come up with the masterpiece goals, but he doesn't want to graft.

And if you're not going to put the work in, you have to turn around.

If you have him playing in a number 10 position, that's fine.

If he is a number 10 that's going to be linking up, he's going to be doing all the kind of creative things that you expect from a Tom Rogic type number 10.

He doesn't do that.

And it also leaves an ageing Carl McGregor.

I don't know if he's the same level, but maybe not far off it.

But he's a kind of Tom Rogic type character.

And Tom Rogic... would I mean he was loved at Celtic but he was a luxury player because he couldn't get a run at him he couldn't get beyond an hour at him for a start weirdly I think Tom Rogic he came through kind of part time football in Australia and I don't think he ever had a base level of fitness and and it just seemed to be he'd run out of steam after an hour every time he played from the start I mean I'd love to see his stats and how many games he actually finished through the years that

would be

about three and I'm not surprised I'm not surprised he retired when he was about 29 because he was such a laid back young guy so not a luck horse was Tom Rogic aye not exactly a grafter but a top player and Negan's a son of a mould and by the way he does a bit of grafting he's just not he's not a physical player he's not great at pressing and winning the ball back he's a wee bit lightweight in that respect but he does he does bust a gut and he puts in his miles on the pitch It's just that I think he's more of a luxury player.

I think he actually, I think if you, I think if you played a kind of 4-2-3-1 with two, a double pivot, as you would call it, or two guys sitting, you could play him in front of that and I think that would be fine as a number 10 and let him do what he likes.

Right? And give me the best out of him that way.

He can pass three teams and he's the best defender at Celtic in doing that.

but put them under pressure you can't you can't you can't move his body quick enough so you're not so you're not progressing the ball well you've got donovan technically on the ball not great two centre-backs that are slow moving the ball so there's your first problem so your build-up's gonna gonna suffer right and then in front of that you talk about the midfield again and go back to ang ang was able to create a solid cohesive cohesive team that was difficult to score against with Tom Rogic and David Turnbull as eights.

Think about that.

Neither of them are eights.

What might get people out of their cognitive dissonance doom loop on Negrin is stop thinking of him as a cross between Roy Keane and Paul Scholes.

He isn't that player, right? He's not a midfielder who's going to go box to box, run around all day kicking people.

He's more like Tom Rogic.

He's an attacking player who's going to play behind the striker, get into the box.

[upbeat music]

I have played alongside Neil Lennon and Tom Rogic.

I've been managed by John McGlynn and Paul Lambert, and I've played for seven Scottish clubs.

Who am I? Played alongside Neil Lennon and Tom Rogic, managed by John McGlynn and Paul Lambert, and I have played for seven Scottish clubs.

Who am I?

Hmm, that's quite a list.

It was a good question.

Yeah, it's an interesting one.

We can get away with carrying one guy in terms of Nigran in the overall squad.

If you've got 11 men on the pitch and they're all fighting and doing it, you can get away with that luxury player who the difference is like I've said numerous times that Tom Rogic and Nigran play the similar role at Celtic.

They're like that luxury player in the number 10.

The difference was Rogic wasn't afraid to clatter someone and he was, you know, about six inches taller.

Yeah.

Yeah, he had passion though, you know.

The Wizard of Oz, he had passion and he got Celtic, you know.

And it's like, you know, it's the same as any club, you know.