Brendan Rodgers told which Celtic position to strengthen in summer if boss won’t stick with player he already has

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Celtic’s most recent outing showed tiny holes in the squad’s armour.

The Hoops still maintain a 13 point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership after Rangers also lost over the weekend, but a 1-0 loss to St Johnstone was less than ideal.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	CelticCeltic	32	25	3	4	92	21	71	78
2	RangersRangers	32	20	5	7	66	33	33	65
3	HibernianHibernian	32	13	11	8	50	41	9	50
4	AberdeenAberdeen	32	14	7	11	43	47	-4	49
5	Dundee UtdDundee Utd	32	13	8	11	40	40	0	47

Brendan Rodgers made his feelings clear at full-time as the manager questioned some of his players while captain Callum McGregor vowed to get tough to outlaw complacency.

Watching the game at McDiarmid Park, ex-Celtic kid Paul Slane felt the defensive pairing of Auston Trusty and Cameron Carter-Vickers were “bullied” at times by the Saints’ forward line.

• READ MORE: Celtic look to offload £3.5m forgotten man as he’s offered to Europa League side top of their division

Paul Slane says Celtic should look to sign a centre-half

And he questioned why Maik Nawrocki was left out despite having two decent games in the American’s stead.

“The two up front (for St Johnstone) were brilliant, but big (Auston) Trusty when you said about a position needing strengthened a few weeks ago…” Slane said on Open Goal.

“Nawrocki’s come in the last few weeks and not put a foot wrong. On the ball he’s aggressive, off the ball he’s got that side to the game.

“Why he came out is beyond me. I don’t know why Rodgers has done that.

“If it was just the Rangers game and then he wanted to put Trusty back in, but he played the next week and was good again.

“It’s a position that if he’s not gonna stick with Nawrocki they need to look at. I’ll be honest, even Carter-Vickers struggled with the two of them. They got bullied all day yesterday.”

Celtic’s summer transfer priorities

Rodgers will undoubtedly have more than just the one spot he feels will need strengthened.

A winger is a priority for Celts while the Hoops will also “clearly” sign a striker to finally replace Kyogo albeit there has been some conversation about the Japanese hitman returning in what would be a shocking comeback.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha is also on the radar.

And Celtic reportedly missed out on a defensive midfielder in the form of Giorgi Kochorashvili of Levante who moved to Sporting CP.