What Celtic star Callum McGregor has noticed about Rangers since Barry Ferguson took over

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Callum McGregor met the media ahead of Celtic’s clash with Rangers this weekend.

The Celtic captain was an injury doubt having missed training this morning with a long-standing calf issue. McGregor had to be substituted in Celtic’s 5-2 win over St Mirren with the problem after his calf tightened up.

Since that match he has been taking things slowly and working individually as a precaution with the Glasgow derby such a massive fixture on the calendar.

That has not stopped the skipper from tuning into manager Brendan Rodgers’ video analysis and match preparation for the visit of the Light Blues where they covered interim head coach Barry Ferguson’s set-up.

• READ MORE: Callum McGregor revelation has Celtic fans all saying the same thing ahead of Rangers clash

Callum McGregor identifies one Rangers tweak under Ferguson

After Philippe Clement was sacked by Rangers, Ferguson took on the short-term role and he has already looked to make tactical tweaks to the set-up.

But it’s only one element of the Ibrox squad that McGregor reckons the coach has tinkered and that shouldn’t matter too much if Celtic play their own game.

“Just obviously they’ve flirted with the five and the four, who knows what they’ll go with. That’s not for me to talk about,” CalMac said when asked what he’d noticed about Ferguson’s tactics.

“For us we need to take the game in isolation, it’s the first one he’s been involved in so he might change. I don’t know, I’ve got no idea, that’s not for me to comment on.

“We know what we want to do in the game, how we want to play and then when we get their team in we’ll know if it’s a five or a four, and we can then slightly adapt what type of position we want to take up depending on their shape.

“Our normal game plan is speed, aggression, quality on the ball. As long as we bring that I think we’ll be okay.”

What Brendan Rodgers said about Barry Ferguson’s Rangers

Brendan Rodgers had a similar takeaway from watching recent Rangers matches.

The Irishman, like his skipper, has not been convinced that the rivals have changed much, certainly not to their benefit.

He said: “For me, if I look purely at the coaching aspect of it, over the course of four games, I don’t see great change. I see the team go 2-0 down against Kilmarnock and come back and win. I see the team lose at home to Motherwell. I see the team go away and get a fantastic result at Fenerbahce.

“And then I see the team lose last night 2-0 over 90 minutes, but win the tie.

“I’ve seen the team change the system. Absolutely, a really good tactical change to go 5-4-1 at Fenerbahce. But I still see a lot of the same traits.”