OPINION
Having enjoyed an unbelievable debut season in charge at Celtic Park, Brendan Rodgers should be looking to push on and help Celtic perform better in the Champions League next season.
The SPL champions suffered a poor campaign in the Champions League last season as they finished bottom of their group and most importantly, they failed to win a single game.
Speaking on BT Sport, former Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard mentioned that Rodgers is the right man to lead Celtic past the group stages for the first time in four years.
Here, This is Futbol takes a look at three areas where the Hoops can improve in Europe’s elite competition and potentially progress to the knockout stages.
Home form
It is incredible to think that Celtic could not pick up three points on home soil last season in the Champions League.
Celtic Park generates one of the best atmospheres on European nights and Celtic faithful were seriously let down by their side who only managed to accumulate one point from three matches.
You could argue that the Hoops had a very difficult group but let us not forget that Celtic produced a sensational performance five years ago to beat five-time European Cup winners Barcelona 2-1 at Celtic Park.
Brendan Rodgers needs to turn Celtic Park into a place where opposition players fear and he can use the 3-3 draw against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side as the benchmark for next season.
Clean sheets
Celtic finished the SPL season with the best defensive record as they only conceded 25 goals in the entire league campaign.
They need to find a way to transfer this form into the Champions League next season.
The Hoops did not keep a single clean sheet in last season’s Champions League campaign and they conceded two or more goals in a single match in four separate occasions.
There is no doubt that Celtic have the firepower to create chances and score goals with players like Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair around but they seriously need to go back to basics and organise themselves better defensively.
Tactics
Brendan Rodgers deserves a huge amount of credit for his debut season at the club but he also needs to take a bit of criticism for the way he set up his side in the Champions League.
It is fair to say that Rodgers showed too much faith in defender Kolo Toure in the opening games of the European competition and the Ivorian was especially at fault for the defeat at home to Borussia Monchengladbach.
In the reverse fixture in Germany and the home tie against Barcelona, the Celtic boss should have been a bit more adventurous and gambled with two up top from the start as the Scottish side had really nothing to lose in both matches.
Next season will be Rodgers’ third managing a team in the Champions League and he has still not managed to guide a side past the group stages. He will surely be much more wiser now and have a better understanding of the competition.