Brendan Rodgers' Celtic checklist before Champions League return as 7 points already set after group stage flop

Jackie McNamara has warned Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers a major overhaul is needed to gear the club up for the Champions League.

A fourth defeat out of five Group E fixtures to Lazio saw the Scottish Premiership leaders crash out of Europe with the final group stage clash with Feyenoord set to round off the campaign at Celtic Park next month. But should the Hoops hold off Rangers and win a 12th title in 13 seasons they will be guaranteed European football beyond Christmas as part of UEFA's revamped 36-team format for the Champions League next term.

The Scottish champions will have a minimum of eight games running from September to January against eight different opponents - and after a disappointing campaign this term former skipper McNamara has issued a lengthy checklist that to Rodgers to get his squad ready for Europe's elite competition. He reckons defensive reinforcements are a must- singling out centre-back and left-back as essential recruitment areas.

McNamara tasked the Hoops with kickstarting their spending in January - as well as cutting the squad of players that Rodgers doesn't trust to make an impact in the Champions League. He also reckons that they need to improve the frontline and improve their clean sheet record on the road in European competition

He told the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast that Rodgers also has to raise the performance level of the team - that he believes has dropped off in the group stage from Ange Postecoglou's tenure. McNamara said: "From the first game, I thought Lazio targeted certain areas to hurt Celtic. You could see what they were trying to achieve between Scales and Taylor a wee bit last night as well.

"In fairness to Scales, I think he's come in and done reasonably well