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Celtic have one foot in the Europa League group stage but are going there with one hand tied behind their back.

They were underwhelming on Thursday night and made hard work of a team that should have been easy meat.

Listen, a score draw away from home is far from a disaster and it would be a monumental shock if Celtic don’t finish the job off at Parkhead in the second leg.

But anyone who thinks everything is rosy in the garden at the club are kidding themselves on. Mikey Johnston was a plus point but any other positives were few and far between.

I’m not saying Celtic should have thumped Suduva 10-1 over two legs like we did back in the day. Times and teams have changed but you can’t tell me they shouldn’t have comfortably dealt with such a limited side.

They still should on Thursday. But how many times can we say it? This defence is not fit for purpose.

Brendan Rodgers slaughtered his backline after the game but he is as culpable as any of them.

The Dedryck Boyata situation has not been resolved, no matter what kind of slant the club puts on it. He is now calling the shots when he feels like he is mentally or physically up to the task.

Rodgers said last week he was fit. Boyata said he was injured. The player then came out on Sunday and said he was fine for training on Monday but by Wednesday he’s not physically or mentally ready for Suduva.

What on earth is going on?

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Boyata is done. He simply needs to be shipped out and at least one centre-half replacement drafted in pronto.

I guess that was the plan with Scott McKenna but that’s another strange one. I like McKenna and think he is a good prospect. But he’s not exactly been hiding under a rock for months. If Celtic seriously wanted him, why wait until a week before the window closes?

It just smacked of desperation. Now it looks like panic stations.

You can’t trust any of the centre-halves. Jack Hendry is clearly not ready, Kris Ajer has a long way to go and Jozo Simonovic has proved he is unreliable.

Meanwhile, there’s no way you can rely on a guy who is seen as a Judas for the rest of the season.

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If Boyata is unwilling to put his body on the line with 10 months left on his contract, good luck coaxing him out when there’s six months to go.

It’s a mess but the Suduva goal the other night has just typified Celtic in recent weeks.

It was clueless. Craig Gordon should have come for the ball but the entire defence has been a shambles.

Rodgers coming out and questioning their pride was an eye-opener though. I would have been banging his door down if I was a player in that dressing room.

At some stage the manager is going to have to take his share of the blame. At the moment it’s the board, or it’s his defence, it’s injuries, or whatever. But he has been at the club two years and this is his team he has moulded. He hasn’t addressed the situation at the back.

Rodgers can say the media are stirring up a disconnect between him and his board but it’s nonsense.

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He is the one who has laid the failure to recruit this summer at their door. It’s not the media’s fault when he is the one setting the agenda.

Rodgers has received plenty of plaudits over the last couple of years, and rightly so. He’s proved he is an outstanding coach and he’s led the club to tremendous success.

That doesn’t mean he can walk on water. And it doesn’t mean he can contradict himself at every turn. The fans are loyal but they know mistakes have been made and realise there is frustration when it comes to getting the club to spend proper money.

They also see the signings have not been good enough and there are players at Parkhead who are now going backwards.

It’s unbelievable how the club have gone from such a position of strength to being so flat in such a short space of time.

For the first time in years I genuinely believe Rangers can get a result against Celtic next week.

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If I was Alfredo Morelos I would be rubbing my hands at the prospect of going up against that defence – any striker would.

I can’t get my head around the fact Celtic have done it again. We said a couple of years ago when Rangers beat them on penalties it was a watershed moment.

Celtic put the foot down and left their rivals behind. But they have shot themselves in the foot this time.

There is still time to redeem it. Celtic’s entire season now rests on the next six days of the window. It’s critical.

This is the toughest time of Rodgers’s reign but fail to sort it out and suffer against Rangers then it will get an awful lot tougher.