Celtic hero fears 8 passengers could cost Brendan Rodgers the title

Alan Stubbs believes Rangers have the team spirit Celtic are missing and warned the champions they can’t afford to continue to carry eight passengers – or they will kiss goodbye to the title.

The Englishman was part of the legendary Hoops side that stopped the Light Blues winning 10-in-a-row and put much of their success down to the camaraderie in the dressing room. He reckons Philippe Clement has created that at Ibrox but doesn’t see it at the Hoops. And he hopes a failure to bring in significant quality in the January transfer window doesn’t come back to bite them.

Celtic have been knocked off top spot in the league following a 1-1 draw at home to Kilmarnock on Saturday but despite Rangers now being two points clear at the summit, the ex Everton man still has his old side as marginal favourites due to the experience winners they have. But in the absence of key man Reo Hatate and Cameron-Carter Vickers, he fears they are lacking real characters to drag them through this tough spell.

He told PLZ Soccer: “I could only name three or four of Saturday’s starting XI where you know what you’ll get. The rest aren’t at the same level of O’Riley, Kyogo, McGregor, and maybe Maeda. The rest are considerably beneath them. I look at this Celtic squad and it’s not reminiscent of squads I’ve seen in the past in terms of title-winning squads. Callum McGregor can’t carry a team. Same with Matt O’Riley and Kyogo. They can do it on the odd few occasions but to do it week in, week out is a huge burden on them. They’ve need others to step up to the plate.

“Callum McGregor, Matt O’Riley and Kyogo are your go-to guys. Daizen Maeda is a good player but hasn’t been to his previous heights and it seems to be a struggle. Carter-Vickers is a