Celtic's only top-class defender is Kieran Tierney - Alan Stubbs

Kieran Tierney is the only top-class defender at Celtic, according to Alan Stubbs.

Kieran Tierney has earned praise from Alan Stubbs. Picture: SNS

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The former Hoops centre back believes Brendan Rodgers will have to improve his defence before the Scottish champions can take the next step at the Champions League level.

Celtic are hopeful of getting a kind group stage draw on Thursday evening and then make significant progress on last year’s campaign, where they exited at the group stages having failed to record a win in six games.

Stubbs, though, believes that Celtic need to upgrade the defensive positions, particularly at centre-back where Jozo Simunovic, Dedryck Boyata and Erik Sviatchenko are the current first choice picks.

He told BBC Scotland: “The only top-class defender they’ve got is Tierney.

“Domestically, Sviatchenko, Boyata, Simunovic are competent, but the Champions League is a whole new ball game.

“You need to allow Tierney to go forward, and that puts extra pressure on the two centre-backs and the opposite full-back. That’s where the problem lies.

“Last year when they went into the group stage, people thought they just needed to be competitive and do themselves justice. I don’t think anyone thought they were going to come through that tough group.

“But the mindset’s changed now, people are potentially looking for Celtic to progress, to see whether that’s a measure of Brendan improving in Europe. And to do that, I don’t think they’re good enough [defensively], apart from Tierney. I really don’t.

“That’s the biggest area of the team when they go to the Champions League they need to improve.”