Don't beat about the bush, Brendan – Celtic have bottled it in Europe

For all the great work Brendan Rodgers has done for Celtic – and it is substantial – there remains an elephant in the room.

Many Celtic fans won't want to hear it, never mind accept it, but a key ingredient is missing from the current team – old-fashioned guts.

Following the 3-0 defeat in St Petersburg, Brendan had this to say: “Defensively, we lacked aggression in particular in the first half. We didn’t close the space quickly enough. You talk about defending forward and we didn’t do that well enough, and we conceded poor goals from that...

“At 2-0, we still have an opportunity in the game. We said at half-time that everything was too sideways and backwards and that’s about bravery and courage to play....

“Last week was an outstanding performance and we came into this game with a great opportunity to come through, but if you don’t start with that aggressive mentality, then it’s really difficult for you.”

It is not the first time that the manager has urged his players to have more “courage to play” or “courage on the ball” in Europe and while we have played teams with superior resources, we have also seen the team collapse time, after time.

Gone are the days when Celtic had one of the best home records in the Champions League (and one of the worst away).

We have now lost five Champions League matches – and drawn one – out of the last six at Celtic Park and it is clearly not a place to be feared. If Barcelona, Paris St Germain are cash-rich, the manner of the defeats against them over the last two seasons was alarming.

But the defeats at home to Borussia Monchengladbach and Anderlecht were more worrying. Both clubs had been labouring elsewhere but won in Glasgow without having to break sweat.

Our defeats in European competition have been marked by catastrophic errors and, with a few exceptions, a lack of players with the heart and belief to win.

As Roy Keane (rarely the most measured of judges) said: "You are hoping Celtic can grind out a result to make the supporters proud, but they didn't do that. They needed to show courage. With 20 minutes to go and 3-0 down everyone wanted the ball ... bluffers.”

It is worth noting that Brendan acknowledged the same weakness in his Liverpool side that capitulated when odds-on favourites to win the English Premier League, which does raise some legitimate questions as to what he can do about the situation.

“Bluffers” may be an unkind word as it suggests that the players are taking Celtic fans for a ride, which is, for the most part, unfair.

But with a match looming at Pittodrie against Aberdeen, the Scottish Premiership team most guilty of collapsing on the big occasion, some of their fans might wonder if Scotland's top division has more than one side of bottlers.--