Brendan Rodgers didn’t spare the feelings of his players as he summed up Celtic’s defeat from Anderlecht and six Champions League ties.
Defeats to Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich weren’t unexpected but after winning 3-0 in Brussels losing 1-0 at home to Anderlecht was a humbling experience.
Stuart Armstrong and Scott Sinclair were hooked off at half-time but it could have been almost any of half a dozen players left behind at the interval following 45 minutes that the hoops were lucky to complete on level terms.
Rodgers has backed his players at every stage over the last 18 months but delivered some home truths after suffering a third Champions League defeat in front of a home audience.
‘Our technique was poor, the players could not play quickly enough and needed five or six touches on the ball,” the Celtic boss told the Daily Mail.
“You have to see the game much quicker when you get to this level. Some of the players were short in their decision-making and we were not so good.
“Some of them think they are Champions League players but this is a good leveller for some of those guys to reflect on the performance and be better.
“The context of the game probably affected our performance, especially in the first half, with Anderlecht having to chase the game to make up the goal difference.
“They were much brighter and quicker than us. We were poor in our ball possession, we couldn’t keep it and needed too many touches.
“Midway through that first half had to change it tactically to try to stem the flow of the game but I was thankful to get in at 0-0 at half-time.
“I thought we were better in the second half, we stemmed the flow much better, kept the ball and were a threat ourselves going forward.
“But there is a story for some of our players in that they have a long way to go before they can call themselves to be players at this level. But we’ve shown over the course of this campaign that we can be better.”
The December fixture list leaves little room for Rodgers to work on improving his players with the January transfer window offering an opportunity to improve the squad.
The draw for the last 32 of the Europa League will take place on Monday.